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SELECT SPEECHES OF KOSSUTH. 



SELECT SPEECHES 



OF 



KOSSUTH. 



CONDENSED AND ABRIDGED, 



WITS KOSSUTH'S EXPRESS SANCTION, 



FRANCIS W. NEWMAN. 




LONDON: 

TRUBNER & CO., 12, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
1853. 






\ 



^^ 



TirCKEB, PEINTEE, PERBY'S PLACE, OXFOED STEEET. 



PREFACE 



KOSSUTH'S SPEECHES. 



»^-m-^ 



Nothing appears in history similar to the enthusiasm 
roused by Kossuth in nations foreign to him, except perhaps 
the kindling for the First Crusade by the voice of Peter the 
Hermit. Then bishops, princes, and people alike understood 
the danger which overshadowed Europe from the Moham- 
medan powers; and by soundly directed, though fanatical 
instinct, all Christendom rushed eastward, till the chivalry of 
the Seljuk Turks was crippled on the fields of Palestine. 
Now also the multitudes of Europe, uncorrupted by ambition, 
envy, or filthy lucre, forebode the deadly struggle impending 
over us all from the conspiracy of crowned heads. Seeing 
the apathy of their own rulers, and knowing, perhaps by dim 
report, the deeds of Kossuth, they look to him as the Great 
Prophet and Leader, by whom Policy is at length to be 
moulded into Justice ; and are ready to catch his inspiration 
before he has uttered a word. Kossuth undoubtedly is a 
mighty Orator ; but no one is better aware than he, that the 
cogency of his arguments is due to the atrocity of our common 
enemies, and the enthusiasm which he kindles to the pre- 
paration of the people's heart. 

His orations are a tropical forest, fall of strength and 
majesty, tangled in luxuriance, a wilderness of self-repetition. 
Utterly unsuited to form a book without immense abridg- 
ment, they contain materials adapted equally for immediate 
political service and for permanence as a work of wisdom and 
of genius. To prepare them for the press is an arduous and 
responsible duty : the best excuse which I can give for 



VI PREFACE. 

having assumed it, is, that it has been to me a labour of love. 
My task I have felt to be that of a judicious rejporter^ who 
cuts short what is of temporary interest, condenses what is 
too amplified for his limits and for written style, severely 
prunes down the repetitions which are inevitable where 
numerous* audiences are addressed by the same man on the 
same subject, yet amid all these necessary liberties retains 
not only the true sentiments and arguments of the speaker, 
but his forms of thought and all that is characteristic of his 
genius. Such an operation, rightly performed, may, like a 
diminishing mirror, concentrate the brilliancy of diffuse ora- 
tions, and assist their efficacy on minds which would faint 
under the effort of grasping the original. 

It is true, the exuberance of Kossuth is often too Asiatic 
for English taste, and that excision of words, which needful 
abridgment suggests, will often seem to us a gain. Moreover, 
remembering that he is a foreigner, and, though marvellous 
in his mastery of our language, still naturally often unable 
to seize the word, or select the construction which he desired, 
I have not thought I should show honour to him by retain- 
ing anything verbally unskilful. To a certain cautious 
extent, I account myself to be a translator^ as well as a 
reporter ; and in undertaking so delicate a duty, I am happy 
to announce that I have received Kossuth's written approval 
and thanks. Mere quaintness of expression I have by no 
means desired entirely to remove, where it involved nothing 
grotesque, obscure, or monotonous. In several passages, 
where I imperfectly understood the thought, I have had the 
advantage of Kossuth's personal explanations, which have 
enabled me to clear up the defective report, or real obscurities 
of his words. 

Nevertheless, I have to confess my conviction, that nothing 
can wholly compensate for the want of systematic revision by 
the author himself; which his great occupations have made 
impossible. The mistakes in the reports of the speeches are 
sometimes rather subtle, and have not roused my suspicion. 
Of this I have been made disagreeably sensible, by the fol- 

* The number of speeches, great and small, spoken in his American 
half-year, is reckoned to be above 500. 



PREFACE. VU 

lowing errata communicated to me by Kossuth in the first 
great speech at New York^ here marked as No. VII. 

Page 34, line 6 from hottom, for every young, every great, every beautiful virtue, 
read ever young, ever great, ever beautiful Nature. 

Page 45, line 15 from bottom, /or of War, read of State. 

Page 46, line 19, for Morocco, read Monaco. 

Page 47, line 16, for cause, read curse. 

Page 51, line 6 from bottom, /or Bombaste Compagne, read Bomba et CompagnCj 
or Bomba and Company. 

Page 52, lines 7 — 10, the quotation from John Adams should extend two lines 
farther, and include the quotation from Shakspeare ; and the word Austrian should 
be omitted. 

Page 53, hne l,for we were to Austria, read we owed to Austria. 

Page 54, line 17, for sure laws, read our laws. 

Nearly all the points on which attempts have been made to 
misrepresent in England the cause of Hungary are cleared up 
in these speeches. On two subjects only does it seem needful 
here to make any remark ; Jlrst, on the Eepublicanism of 
Kossuth ; secondly^ on the Hungarian levies against Italy in 
the year 1848. 

1. Kossuth is attacked by his countrymen on opposite 
grounds : Szemere despises him for not becoming a republican 
early enough, Count Casimir Bathyanyi reproves him for be- 
coming a republican at all. The facts are these. Kossuth, like all 
English statesmen, was a historical royalist, not a doctrinaire. 
When the existing reign had become treacherous and lawless, 
he was willing to change the line of succession, and make the 
Archduke Stephen king ; (see p. 298). When the dynasty had 
become universally detested and actually expelled, he approved 
most heartily* the deposition of the Hapsburgs ; but still 
held himself in suspense as to the future of the constitution. 
By his influence instructions were sent to his representative 
in England (p. 6), which were equivalent to soliciting a 
dynasty from the British government. Meanwhile Szemere, 
his Home Secretary, took on himself to avow in the Diet that 
the government was republic an, and no voice of protest 
was raised in either house. Indeed, Mr. Yucovics, who was 
Minister of Justice under Kossuth, states (see Appendix I) 
that the government and both houses responded unanimously 

^ How unanimous was the whole country, is clear by the facts 
stated in p. 9. How spontaneous was the movement, and free from 
all government intrigue, see in Appendix I. This is entirely con- 
firmed by our envoy Mr. Blackwell : Blue Book, March — Ap. 1848. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

to the republican avowal, and that the government removed 
the symbol of the Crown from the public arms and seal. The 
press of all shades assented. After this, it was clear (I pre- 
sume) to Kossuth, or at least it soon became so, that all 
sympathy with royal power was gone out of the nation's heart. 
Hungarians may settle that amongst themselves : but as for 
Englishmen, — when for seven or eight months together the 
English ministry and English peerage would not stir, or speak, 
or whisper, to save constitutional royalty and ancient peerage 
for Hungary and for Europe while it was yet possible ; with 
what face, with what decency, can Englishmen censure 
Kossuth for despairing of a cause, which was abandoned to 
ruin by ourselves, the greatest power interested to maintain 
it, — which the monarchs have waded through blood and 
perjury to destroy, — and which the millions of Hungary will 
not (in his belief) peril life and fortune to restore ? 

2. The ministry of Louis Bathyanyi and Kossuth have 
been attacked on opposite grounds, — because they did, — and 
because they did not, attempt to subdue the Italians by force 
of arms. The facts are rather complicated, but deserve here 
to be stated concisely. 

When the ministry was appointed, there were already 
Hungarians in Italy with Eadetzki, and Austrian soldiers in 
Hungary. The Viennese ministry promised to exchange them, 
as fast as could be done without encountering great expense 
or dislocating the regiments and making them inefficient. 
With this promise the Hungarian ministry was forced to 
content itself at the time. At a later period, when it dis- 
covered that the Austrian commanders in Hungary had secret 
orders not to fight against the Serbian marauders, and that 
the Austrian troops could not be trusted, the Hungarian 
ministry desired to get back their men from Italy for their 
own defence ; which desire proved ineffectual, yet has been 
severely blamed by some of our monarchists. But meanwhile 
the Yiennese ministry, as early as June, 1848, endeavoured 
to buy of the Hungarian ministry an increased grant of troops 
against Italy, by conceding a most energetic *' King's Speech" 
against the Serbs, with which the Archduke Palatine was to 



PREFACE. IX 

open, and did open, the Diet on July 2d. A part of this 
speech is quoted in Appendix 11, and indeed it is a loathsome 
exhibition of Austrian treachery. The Hungarian ministry 
were pressed by the arguments, that since Austria was 
attacked in Italy by the King of Sardinia, the war was not 
merely against the Lombards ; and that the Pragmatic Sanc- 
tion bound Hungary to defend the empire if assailed from 
without. This led them to acknowledge the principle, that 
they were bound to assist, if able; but they replied that 
Hungary itself must first be secured against marauders, and 
no troops could be spared until the Serbs were subdued. At 
the same time orders were sent to Eadetzki from Vienna to 
offer independence to the Lombards, and constitutional nation- 
ality under the Austrian crown to the Venetians : hence the 
Hungarian ministry for a time fancied that they would not 
be fighting against the Italians, as they expected the terms 
to be accepted by them. When it was farther represented 
that the Italians had rejected them, — (for Eadetzki, acting 
probably by secret orders, suppressed the despatches, and 
never offered independence to Lombardy, though the Austrian 
ministers made diplomatic capital of their liberality), — then 
the Hungarian ministry began to think the Italians unrea- 
sonable ; yet they did not go beyond their abstract principle, 
that Hungary ought to grant troops for Austrian defence in 
Italy, provided, 1st, that rebellion in Hungary itself were 
repressed; 2d, that the troops should not act against the 
Italians, unless the Italians had rejected the offer of national 
liberties and a constitution coordinate to those of Hungary, 
under the Austrian crown. 

The protocol on this subject was drawn on July 5th ; the 
public speech of Kossuth concerning it was not until July 
22d : and in this short interval the treachery of the dynasty 
had been so displayed, that Kossuth could no longer speak in 
the same tone as a few weeks earlier. For a fuller develop- 
ment of this, I refer the reader to Appendix HI. The real 
object of the Austrian ministry, was, to ruin the popularity 
of Bathyanyi and Kossuth, if they could induce them to 
sacrifice Italian freedom; or else, to accuse them to all the 
European diplomatists as conspirators against the integrity 



X PREFACE. 

of the Austrian empire, if they refused to oppress the liberties 
of Italy. 

Finally, the reader has even here proof enough how false 
is the statement which has been current in English news- 
papers, that Kossuth's visit to America was "a failure." 
This was an attempt to practise on our prevalent disgraceful 
tendency to judge of a cause by its success. However, the 
end is not yet seen : America has stiU to act decisively, if she 
would win the lasting glory which we have despised, of res- 
cuing Law and Eight from lawless force, and establishing the 
future of Europe. 



Page 101, line Z,for Balzordji, read Baltadji. 

Pages 108, 140, 168, 193, remove the stop from the heading of the page. 

Page 112, line 5, for May, read April. 

Page 194, in the heading,/or scope, read hope. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

1. Secrecy of Diplomacy 1 

London, Oct. 30th, 1851. 

2. Monarchy and Republicanism 3 

Copenhagen House, London, Nov. 3d. 

3. Communism and the Sibylline Books .... 5 

Manchester, Nov. 12th. 

4. Legitimacy of Hungarian Independence . . . . 7 ^ 

Staten Island, Dec. 5th, 1851. 
Declaration of Independence by the Hungarian Nation . 10 

5. Statement of Principles and Aims 23 

New York, Dec. 6th. 

6. Reply to the Baltimore Address 27 

Dec. 10th. 

7. Hereditary Pohcy of America ...... 30 

New York, to the Corporation, Dec. 11th. 

8. On Nationahties 57 

New York, to the Press. 

9. On Mihtary Institutions . 74 

New York, to the Mihtia, Dec. 16th. 

10. Conditions essential for Democracy and Peace , . 83 

New York, Tammany Hall, Dec. 17th. 

11. Hungary and Austria in Rehgious Contrast ... 85 

In a Brooklyn Church, New York, Dec. 18th. 

12. Public Piracy of Russia 88 

New York, to the Bar, Dec. 19th. 

13. Claims of Hungary on the Female Sex .... 97 

New York, to the Ladies, Dec. 21st. 

14. Results of the Overthrow of the French Republic . . 104 

Philadelphia, Dec. 26th. 

15. Interest of America in Hungarian Liberty . . . 107 

Baltimore, Dec. 27th. 

16. Novelties in American Repubhcanism . . . .114 

Washington, Legislative Banquet, Jan. 5th, 1852. 

17. On the Merits of Turkey ...... 130 

18. Aspects of America toward England .... 135 

Washington. Jan. 8th, day of hattle of New Orleans. 

19. Meaning of Recognizing Hungarian Independence . . 142 •' 

Washington, last speech. 

20. Contrast of the American to the Hungarian Crisis . . 144 

Annapohs, Maryland, Jan. 13th, to the Senate. 

21. Thanks for his great Success 147 

Harrishui-g, Pennsylvania, Jan. 14th, to the Legislature, 

22. On the present Weakness of Despotism .... 151 

HaiTisburg, Legislative Banquet. 

23. Agencies of Russian Ascendancy and Supremacy . . 161 

Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Jan. 26th. 

24. Reply to the Pittsburgh Clergy . . . .173 

Jan. 26th. 



XU CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

25. Hungarian Loan 175 

Cleveland, Ohio, Teh 3d. 
Address to Kossuth from the State Committee of Ohio . 178 

26. Panegyric of Ohio . . . . . : . .180 

Columbus, OMo, Feb. 5tli. 

27. Democracy the Spmt of the Age ..... 183 

Columbus, Feb. 6th, to the Legislature. 

28. The Miseries and the Strength of Hungary . . . 189 

Columbus, Feb. 7th. 

29. Ohio and France Contrasted as Eepublics . . . 197 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 

30. War a Providential Necessity against Oppression . . 203 

Cincinnati. 

31. On Washington's PoHcy 208 

Cincinnati, Washington's Birthday, Feb, ^th. 

32. Kossuth's Credentials 217 

Cincinnati, Feb. 25th. 

33. Harmony of the Executive and of the People in America . 224 

Indianapolis, at the State House, Feb. 27th. 

34. Importance of Foreign PoUcy and of strengthening England 229 

Louisville, March 6th, at the Court House. 

35. CathoHcism versus Jesuitism ...... 237 

St. Louis, Missouri. 

36. The Ides of March 247 

St. Louis, March 15th. 

37. History of Kossuth's Liberation 256 

Jackson, Mississippi., April 1st, address to the Governor. 

38. Pronouncement of the South 260 

Mobile, Alabama, April 3d. 

39. Kossuth's Defence against certain Mean Imputations . 273 

Jersey-City, April 20th. 

40. The Brotherhood of Nations 277 

Newark, New Jersey, April 22d. 

41. The History and Heart of Massachusetts .... 281 

Worcester, Massachusetts, April 25th. 

42. Panegyric of Massachusetts 285 

Faneuil Hall, Boston, April 29th. 

43. Self-Grovernment of Hungary 293 

Faneuil Hall, Legislative Banquet, April 30th. 

44. Bussia the Antagonist of the U.S 302 

Salem, May 6th. 

45. The Martyrs of the American Revolution .... 310 

Lexington, May 11th. 

46. Condition of Europe .316 

Faneuil Hall, Boston, May 14th. 

47. Pronouncement of all the States . . . . . 336 

Albany, May 20th. 

48. Sound and Unsound Commerce 340 

Buffalo, May 27th. 

49. Russia and the Balance of Power 346 

SjTacuse, June 4th. 

50. Retrospect and Prospect 353 

Utica, June 9th. 

51. The Triple Bond 359 

New York, June 22d. 

Appendices 365 



KOSSUTH S SPEECHES. 



[The speeches of Kossuth in England, though masterly in 
themselves, are in great measure superseded by those which 
he delivered in America, where the same subjects were treated 
at far greater length, and viewed from many different aspects. 
From the speeches in England I here present only three 
topics, in a rather fragmentary form.] 

I.— SECEECY OF DIPLOMACY. 

[_First Extract : from Kossuth^ s Sjpeech at tJie Guildhall^ London^ 
Oct. ^Oth, 1851.] 

The time draws near, when a radical change must take 
place for the whole world in the management of diplomacy. 
Its basis has been secrecy : therein is the triumph of abso- 
lutism, and the misfortune of a free people. This has won 
its way not in England only, but throughout the whole world, 
even where not a penny of the national property can be dis- 
posed of without public consent. It smxly is dangerous to 
the interests of the country and to constitutional liberty, to 
allow such a secrecy, that the people not only should not 
know how its interests are being dealt with, but that after the 
crisis is passed, the minister should inform them : " The 
dinner has been prepared, — and eaten; and the people has 
nothing to do, but digest the consequences." What is the 
principle of all evil in Europe ? The encroaching spirit of 
Eussia. — And by what power has Eussia become so mighty ? 
By its arms ? — No : the arms of Eussia are below those of 
many Powers. It has become almost omnipotent, — at least 
very dangerous to liberty, — by diplomatic intrigues. Now 

] 



SECRECY OF DIPLOMACY. 



against the secret intrigues of diplomacy there is no surer 
safeguard, or more powerful counteraction, than public dis- 
cussion. This must be opposed to intrigues, and intrigues 
are then of no weight in the destinies of humanity. 



\_8econd Extract from a Short Sjpeecli in London^ May 2^th, 1853.] 

I must ask leave to make a remark on the system pursued 
by your Government in their Foreign relations. You con- 
sider yourselves a constitutional nation : I fear that in some 
respects you are not so. There is a Latin proverb [current 
in Hungary], Nil de nobis shie nobis, — ^' nothing that concerns 
us, without us." This in many things you make your maxim. 
You say that none of your money shall be spent without your 
knowledge and approval; and in your internal affairs you 
carry this out ; but I think that the secrecy in which the 
transactions of your diplomacy are involved is hardly consti- 
tutional. Of that most important portion of your affairs 
which concerns your country in its relations with the rest of 
Europe, what knowledge have you ? If any interpellation is 
made about any affair not yet concluded, my Lord the Secre- 
tary of the Foreign Office will reply that lie cannot give any 
answer, for the negotiations are still pending. A little later he 
will be able to answer, that as all is now concluded, all com- 
inent will be superfluous. 

One little fact I will just mention. By the last treaty with 
Denmark, to which you became a party, the crown of that 
kingdom was so settled that only three lives stand between it 
and the Czar of Eussia. Three lives ! but a fragile barrier, 
when high political aims are concerned. It is therefore an 
allowed fact, that the country which commands entrance to 
the Baltic, and which, in the hands of an unfriendly power, 
would effectually exclude your commerce from that sea, may 
pass into the hands of Russia, whose pretensions in the south 
of Europe you take so much pains to check. This your 
government have done quietly. How many are there of your 
people that know and approve it ? I hope you will not be 
offended, if I say, that I cannot understand how yours can 
be called in this respect a constitutional country. 



II.— MONAKCHY AND EEPUBLICAlSriSM. 

l^From KossutTCs Speech at Copenhagen Souse^ Nov, 3d^, 1851.] 

In my opinion, the form of Government may be different in 
different countries, according to their circumstances, their 
wishes, their wants. England loves her Queen, and has full 
motive to do so. England feels great, glorious, and free, and 
has full reason to feel so. But the fact of England being a 
monarchy cannot be sufficient reason for her to hate and dis- 
credit republican forms of government in other countries 
differing in circumstances, in wishes, and in wants. On the 
other side, to the United States of America, which under 
republican government are likewise great, glorious, and free, 
their republicanism gives no sufficient reason to hate and dis- 
credit monarchical government in England. It entirely belongs 
to the right of every nation to dispose of its domestic concerns. 
Therefore I claim for my own country also, that England, 
seeing from our past that our cause is just, should profess the 
sovereign right of every nation to dispose of itself, and 
should allow no power whatever to interfere with our domestic 
matters. Since I thus regard the internal affairs of every 
nation to be its own separate concern, I did not think it be- 
came me here in England to speak about the future organiza- 
tion of our country. 

But my behaviour has not been everywhere appreciated as 
I hoped. I have met in certain quarters the remark that I 
"am slippery, and evade the question." Now on the point of 
sincerity I am particularly susceptible. I have the sentiment 
of being a straightforward man, and I would not be charged 
with having stolen into the sympathies of England without 
displaying my true colours. Therefore I must clearly state, 
that in our past struggle it was not we who made a revolu- 
tion. We began peacefully and legislatively to transform the 
monarchico-aristocratical constitution of Hungary into a 
monarchico-democratical constitution. We preserved our 
municipal institutions, as our most valuable treasure ; but to 
them, as well as to the legislative power, we gave, as basis, 
the common liberty of the people, instead of the class-pri- 
vileges of old. Moreover, in place of the old Board of 



4 MONARCHY AND REPUBLICANISM. 

Council, — which, being a corporate body, was of course a 
mockery in regard to that responsibility of the Executive, 
1 which was our chartered right on paper, — we established the 
real and personal responsibility of ministers. In this, we 
merely* upheld what was due to us by constitution, by trea- 
ties, by the coronation-oath of every king, — the right to be 
" governed as a self- consistent, independent country, by our 
native institutions, according to our own laws." This and 
all our other reforms we effected peacefully by careful legisla- 
tion, which the King sanctioned and swore to maintain. 

Nevertheless, this very dynasty, in the most perjurious 
manner, attacked these laws, this freedom, this constitution, 
by arms. We defended ourselves by arms, victoriously. 
When upon this the peijurious dynasty called in the Eussian 
armies to beat us down, we of course declared the Hapsburgs 
to be no longer our sovereigns. We avowed ourselves to be 
a free and independent nation, but fixed as yet no definite 
form of government, — neither monarchical nor republican. 

* Many Enghshmen have unjustly accused the Hungarians as 
having by the laws of March 1848, eflPected a sepaeation of Hun- 
gary fi'om Austria. JEven if this were true^ it could not justify the 
cause of the Hapsburgs. The dynasty yielded, under the pressure 
of circumstances (as alone will dynasties ever yield), while Hungary 
did but petition legally, and was in fact unarmed. The dynasty 
swore to the new laws ; and then, conspired with Croatians, Serbians, 
and Russians to overthrow the laws by marauding and force of 
arms. In fact, if in January 1849 Austria would have negotiated, 
instead of arresting all Hungarian ambassadors, Hungary would 
liave consented to modify the laws of March : but the Austrians had 
already in October ordered the overthrow of the whole Hungarian 
constitution, and had no wish to do anything by legal methods. 

At the same time, the original objection is fundamentally false. 
No separation of the two countries was effected by the laws of 
March 1848 ; for no legal union ever existed. Only the crowns were 
united, not the countries. Kossuth rightly compares the union to 
that which was between England and Hanover. At any time in 
the past, Hungary might have made jpeace with a power with which 
Austria was at ivar^ if the Kings had not falsified their oath by not 
assembling the Diet : for the Diet always had the lawful right of 
War and Peace, Any mode whatsoever of enforcing the Coronation 
oath, might, according to this logic, be condemned as a "separating" 
of Austria and Hungary. 



COMMUNISM. O 

These are plain facts. Hungary is not now under lawful 
government, but is being trampled down by a foreign intruder, 
who is not King of Hungary, being neither acknowledged by 
the nation, nor sanctioned by law. Hungary is, in a word, in 
a state of war against the Hapsburg dynasty, a war of legiti- 
mate defence, by which alone it can ever regain independence 
and freedom. By such war alone has any nation ever won its 
freedom from oppressors ; as you see in Switzerland, Belgium, 
Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Norway, Greece, the United 
States, and England itself. 

I can state it, as known to me, with the certainty of mat- 
ter of fact, that Hungary will never accept the Hapsburgs 
as legitimate sovereigns in the future, nor ever enter into any 
new moral relations with that perjurious family. Nor only 
so ; but their perjury has so entirely plucked out of my 
nation's heart all faith in monarchy and all attachment to it, 
that there is no power on earth to knit the broken tie again : 
and therefore Hungary wishes and wills to be a free and in* 
dependent republic, — a republic founded on the rule of 
law, securing social order, guaranteeing person, property, the 
moral development as well as material welfare of the people, 
— ^in a word, a republic like that of the United States, 
founded on institutions inherited from England itself. This 
is the conviction of my people, which I share in the very 
heart of my heart. 



« IX? " 



in.— COMMUNISM AND THE SIBYLLINE BOOKS. 
{From Kossuth^s Second Speech at Manchester, Nov. 12th, 1851.] 

I can understand Communism, but not Socialism. I have 
read many books on the subject, I have consulted many 
doctors ; but they differ so much that I never could under- 
stand what they really mean. However, the only sense which 
I can see in socialism, is inconsistent with social order and 
the security of property. 

Now since Erance has three times in sixty years failed to 
obtain practical results from Political revolutions, all Europe 
is apt to press forward into new Social doctrine to regulate 



6 SIBYLLINE BOOKS. 

the future. Believing then, that, — not from my merit, but 
from the state of my country, — I may be able somewhat to 
influence the course of the next European revolution, I think 
it right plainly to declare beforehand my allegiance to the 
great principle of security for personal property. Neverthe- 
less, to give success to my endeavours in this direction, the 
rational expectations of the nations of Europe must speedily 
be fulfilled ; else neither I, nor more important men, can avail 
to stay revolutionary movement. The danger of the case 
may be illustrated by the ancient story of the Sibylline 
books. 

Take Hungary as an instance. Three years ago we should 
have been extremely well contented with the laws as made by 
our parliament in 1848, wJiicTi laws did not break the tie between 
us and the house of Hapsburg. But then Austria assailed us 
with arms, and it became impossible for us to go on with that 
constitution ; indeed she herself proclaimed it to be dissolved. 
We defeated her, and next she called in the Eussian armies. 
Hungary was then under the necessity of casting off the 
Hapsburg monarchy ; and only the third Sibylline book re- 
mained. Yet Hungary did not even then renounce mo- 
narchy, but gave instructions to her representative in England 
to say to the Government of this country, that if they wished 
to see monarchy established in Hungary ^ we would accept any 
dynasty they proposed: but it was not listened to. Then 
came the horrors of Arad,* and destroyed all our faith in 
monarchy. So the last of the three books was burned. 

And so, wherever men's reasonable expectations are not 
fulfilled, it cannot be known where their fluctuations will end. 
Every man who is anxious for the preservation of person and 
property should help the world in obtaining rational free- 
dom : if it be not obtained, mankind will search after other 
forms of action, totally subversive of all existing social order ; 
and where the excitement will subside, I do not know. Men 
like me, who merely wish to establish political freedom, will 

* In Arad the Hungarian generals, who surrendered by Grorgey*s 
persuasion, were hanged or shot; and simultaneously Bathyanyi, 
who had been arrested when he came as an ambassador of peace, was 
j udged anew and murdered by a second court-martial. 



LIBERTY IS ONLY A POWER FOR DEEDS. 7 

in such circumstances lose all their influence, and others will 
get influence who may become dangerous to all established 
interests whatsoever. 



lY.— LEaiTIMACY OF HUNaAEIAN INDEPENDENCE. 

[When Kossuth had landed at Staten Island, thus for the 
first time setting his foot on American soil, he was met by a 
deputation, which made an address to him. He replied as 
follows (Dec. 5th, 1851)] :— 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The twelve hours that I have 
had the happiness to stand on your shores, give me augury 
that, during my stay in the United States, 1 shall have a 
pleasant duty to perform, in answering the generous spirit of 
your people. I hope, however, that you will consider that I 
am in the first moments of a hard task, — to address your in- 
telligent people in a tongue foreign to me. You will not 
expect from me an elaborate speech, but will be contented 
with a few warmly-felt words. Citizens, accept my fervent 
thanks for your generous welcome, and my blessing upon 
your sanction of my hopes. You have most truly stated what 
they are, when you announce the destiny of your glorious 
country, and tell me that from it the spirit of liberty will go 
forth and achieve the freedom of the world. 

Tes, citizens, these are the hopes which have induced me, 
in a most eventful period, to cross the Atlantic. I con- 
fidently hope, that as you have anticipated my wishes by the 
expression of your generous sentiments, so you will agree 
with me, that the spirit of liberty has to go forth, not only 
spiritually, but materially, from your glorious country. That 
spirit is a power for deeds, but is yet no deed in itself. 
Despotism and oppression never yet were beaten except by 
heroic resistance. That is a sad necessity, — but it is a 
necessity nevertheless. I have so learned it out of the great 
book of history. I hope the people of the United States 
will remember, that in the hour of their nation's struggle, it 
received from Europe more than kind wishes. It received 
material aid from others in times past, and it will, doubtless, 



8 HE ABSTAINS FROM DOMESTIC QUESTIONS. 

now impart its mighty agency to achieve the liberty of other 
lands. 

Citizens, I thank you for having addressed me, not in the 
langTiage of party, but in the language of liberty, which is 
that of the United States. I come hither, in the name of 
Hungary, to entreat, not from any party among you, but 
from your whole nation, a generous protection for my country. 
And for that very reason, neither will I intermeddle with 
any of your party questions. In England I often avowed 
this principle ; inasmuch as the very mission on which I 
come, is to ask that the right of every nation to arrange its 
domestic concerns may be respected. Notwithstanding this, 
I am sorry to see, that, before my arrival, I have been charged 
with intermeddling with your presidential election, because 
in one of my addresses in England I mentioned the name of 
your fellow-citizen, Mr. Walker, as one of the candidates for 
the Presidency. I confess with warm gratitude, that Mr. 
Walker uttered such sentiments in England, as, if happily 
they are also those of the United States, will enable me to 
declare, that Hungary and Europe are free. Therefore I feel 
deeply indebted to him. But in no respect did I mix myself 
up with your elections. I consider no man honest who does 
not observe towards other nations the principles which he 
desires to be observed towards his own : and therefore I will 
not interfere in your domestic questions. 

Allow me, citizens, to advert to one expression of your 
kind address, personal to myself. You named me " Kossuth, 
Governor of Hungary." 

My nomination to be Governor was not to gratify am- 
bition. Never, perhaps, did I feel sadder, than at the 
moment when that title was conferred upon me ; for I com- 
pared my feeble faculties and its high responsibilities. It is 
therefore not from ambition that I thank you for the title, 
but because the title rests upon ourDeclaration of Independence; 
and by acknowledging it as mine, you recognize the right- 
fulness and validity of that Declaration. And, gentlemen! 
I frankly declare that your whole people are bound in honour 
and duty to recognize it. At this moment there is no other 
legitimate existing law in Hungary. It was not the proclama- 



HUNGARIAN INDEPENDENCE STILL RIGHTFUL. 9 

tion of a man or of a party. It was the solemn declaration 
of the whole nation in Congress assembled. It was sanctioned 
by every village and by every municipality. No counter- 
proclamation has gone forth from Hungary. .It has been 
overturned solely by the invasion of an ambitious foreign 
power, the Czar of Russia ; who can no more legitimately 
make or unmake a governor of Hungary, than General Santa 
Anna, if in your late war he had forced his way to Washington, 
could have unmade President Taylor. None of you will 
admit that violence can destroy righteousness : it can but 
establish unlawful, unrightful fact. If so, — if your own 
people, and not foreign invaders, are the source of rightful 
law to you, — you must in consistency recognize our Inde- 
pendence as legitimate, and its Declaration as our still rightful 
law. 

As to the praises which you were so kind as to bestow upon 
me, it is no affectation in me when I declare that I am not 
conscious of having any other merit than that of being a 
plain, straightforward man, a faithful friend of freedom, a good 
patriot. And these qualities, gentlemen, are so natural to 
every honest man, that it is scarcely worth while to speak of 
them ; for I cannot conceive how a man with understanding" 
and with a sound heart, can be any thing else than a good 
patriot and a lover of freedom. 

Yet my humble capacity has not preserved me from 
calumnies. Scarcely had I arrived here, when I learned that I 
had been charged in the United States with being an irreligious 
man. So long as despots exist, and have the means to pay, _ 
they will find men to caliunniate those who are opposed to 
tyranny. But, suppose I were the most dishonest creature in 
the world; in the name of all that is sacred, wTiat would that 
mutter in respect to the cause of Hungary ? Would that 
cause become less just, less righteous, less worthy of your 
sympathy, because I, for instance, am a bad man ? No ! I 
believe you. It is not a question in regard to any individual 
here. It is a question with regard to a just cause, the cause 
of a country worthy to take its place in the great family of 
the free nations of the world. Until I learn that you refuse 
to recognize nations, whenever their governors fall short of 



10 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

religious perfection, I need not care much about attacks on 
my mere personality. But one thing I can scarcely com- 
prehend, — that the Press — that mighty vehicle of justice 
and champion of human rights — could have found an organ, 
and that, in the United States, which (to say nothing of 
personal calumnies), should degrade itself to assert that it 
was not the people of Hungary, it was not myself and my 
coadjutors, that contended for liberty ; but it was the Em- 
peror of Austria who was the champion of liberty. Do not 
give it groans, gentlemen, but rather thank it ; for there can 
be no better service to any cause, than for its opponents to 
manifest that they have nothing to say but what is ridiculous. 
That must have been a sacred and just cause, whose detractors 
need to assert that the Emperor of Austria is the champion 
of freedom throughout his own dominions and throughout 
the European continent. 

I thank you that you have given me full proof that all these 
calumnies have affected neither your judgment or your heart. 
As this will be the place whence I shall start back for Europe, 
I shall once more have the happiness of addressing you pub- 
licly and bidding you an affectionate adieu : — hoping then to 
be able to thank you for acts, as I now thank you for 
sentiments. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE BJ THE HUNGARIAN 
NATION. 

[The reader may be glad to possess the most important 
portions of this celebrated document. The opponents of 
Kossuth have of late pretended, that the deposition of the 
Hapsburgs caused the overthrow of Hungary. But the 
deposition was not carried until Austria was thoroughly 
beaten, and Eussia had engaged to give her utmost aid. This 
finally united all Hungary. At no earlier period would 
Hungary have acted with fall unanimity in so decisive a 
step. To have delayed it longer would not have averted 
Eussian invasion, and would have caused deep discontent in 
Hungary. Nothing but the wilful disobedience of Gorgey, 
who wasted a month at Buda at this very crisis, saved the 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 11 

Hapsburgs from being conquered in Vienna, before the 
Eussian armies could possibly come up.] 

We, the legally-constituted representatives of the Hunga- 
rian nation assembled in Diet, do by these presents solemnly 
proclaim, in maintenance of the inalienable natural rights of 
Hungary, with all its appurtenances and dependencies, to 
occupy the position of an Independent European state ; that 
the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg, as perjured in the sight of 
God and man, has forfeited its right to the Hungarian throne. 
At the same time, we feel ourselves bound in duty to make 
known the motives and reasons which have impelled us to 
this decision, that the civilized world may learn we have not 
taken this step out of overweening confidence in our own 
wisdom, or out of revolutionary excitement, but that it is an 
act of the last necessity, adopted to preserve from utter 
destruction a nation persecuted to the limit of the most 
enduring patience. 

Three hundred years have passed since the Hungarian 
nation, by free election, placed the house of Austria upon its 
throne, in accordance with stipulations made on both sides, 
and ratified by treaty. These three hundred years have been, 
for the country, a period of uninterrupted suffering. 

The Creator has blessed this country with all the elements 
of wealth and happiness. Its area of one hundred and ten 
thousand square miles presents, in varied profusion, innu- 
merable sources of prosperity. Its population, numbering 
nearly fifteen millions, feels the glow of youthful strength 
within its veins, and has shown temper and docility which 
warrant its proving at once the main organ of civilization in 
Eastern Europe, and the guardian of that civilization when 
attacked. Never was a more grateful task appointed to a 
reigning dynasty by the dispensation of Providence than that 
which devolved upon the house of Lorraine-Hapsburg. It 
would have sufiaced, to do nothing to impede the development 
of the country. Had this been the rule observed, Hungary 
would now rank among the most prosperous nations. It 
was only necessary that it should not envy the Hungarians 
the moderate share of constitutional liberty which they 



12 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

timidly maintained during the difficulties of a thousand years 
with rare fidelity to their sovereigns, and the house of 
Hapsburg might long have counted this nation among the. 
most faithful adherents of the throne. 

This dynasty however, which can at no epoch point to a 
ruler who based his power on the freedom of the people, 
adopted a course towards this nation, from father to son, 
which deserves the appellation of perjury. 

The house of Austria has publicly used every effort to 
deprive the country of its legitimate Independence and Con- 
stitution, designing to reduce it to a level with the other 
provinces long since deprived of all freedom, and to unite all 
in a common sink of slavery. Foiled in this effort by the 
untiring vigilance of the nation, it directed its endeavour to 
lame the power, to check the progress of Hungary, causing 
it to minister to the gain of the provinces of Austria, but 
only to the extent which enabled those provinces to bear the 
load of taxation with which the prodigality of the imperial 
house weighed them down ; having first deprived those pro- 
vinces of all constitutional means of remonstrating against a 
policy which was not based upon the welfare of the subject, 
but solely tended to maintain despotism and crush liberty in 
every country of Europe. 

It has frequently happened that the Hungarian nation, in 
despite of this systematized tyranny, has been obliged to 
take up arms in self-defence. Although constantly victo- 
rious in these constitutional struggles, yet so moderate has 
the nation ever been in its use of the victory, so strongly has 
it confided in the king's plighted word, that it has ever laid 
down arms as soon as the king, by new compacts and fresh 
oaths, has guaranteed the duration of its rights and liberty. 
But every new compact was as futile as those which preceded 
it ; each oath which fell from the royal lips was but a renewal 
of previous perjuries. The policy of the house of Austria, 
which aimed at destroying the independence of Hungary as 
a state, has been pursued unaltered for three hundred years. 

It was in vain that the Hungarian nation shed its blood 
for the deliverance of Austria whenever it was in danger; 
vain were all the sacrifices which it made to serve the inte- 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 13 

rests of the reigning house ; in vain did it, on the renewal of 
the royal promises, forget the wounds which the past had 
inflicted ; vain was the fidelity cherished by the Hungarians 
for their king, and v/hich, in moments of danger, assumed a 
character of devotion ; they were in vain, since the history 
of the government of that dynasty in Hungaiy presents but 
an unbroken series of peijured deeds from generation to 
generation. 

In spite of such treatment, the Hungarian nation has all 
along respected the tie by which it was united to this dynasty; 
and in now decreeing its expulsion from the throne, it acts 
under the natural law of self-preservation, being driven to 
pronounce this sentence by the full conviction that the house 
of Lorraine-Hapsburg is compassing the destruction of Hun- 
gary as an independent State ; so that this dynasty has been 
the first to tear the bands by which it was united to the Hun- 
garian nation, and to confess that it had torn them in the face 
of Europe. For many causes a nation is justified, before 
God and man, in expelling a reigning dynasty. Among such 
are the following : 

1. When the dynasty forms alliances with the enemies of 
the country, with robbers, or partizan chieftains to oppress 
the nation : 2. When it attempts to annihilate the Inde- 
pendence of the country and its Constitution, supported on 
oaths, by attacking with an armed force the people who have 
committed no act of revolt: 3. When the integrity of a 
country, which the sovereign has sworn to maintain, is vio- 
lated, and its resources cut away: 4. When foreign armies are 
employed to murder the people, and to oppress their liberties. 

Each of the grounds here enumerated would justify the 
exclusion of a dynasty from the throne. But the House of 
Lorraine-Hapsburg is unexampled in the compass of its per- 
juries, and has committed every one of these crimes against 
the nation. * * * 

In former times, a governing council, under the name of 
the Eoyal Hungarian Stadtholdership, the president of which 
was the Palatine, held its seat at Buda, whose sacred duty it 
was to watch over the integrity of the state, the inviolability 
of the Constitution, and the sanctity of the laws ; but this 



14 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

collegiate authority not presenting any element of personal 
responsibility, the Yienna cabinet gradually degraded this 
council to the position of an administrative organ of court 
absolutism. In this manner, while Hungary had ostensibly 
an independent government, the despotic Vienna cabinet dis- 
posed at will of the money and blood of the people for foreign 
purposes, postponing our commercial interests to the success 
of courtly cabals, injurious to the welfare of the people, so 
that we were excluded from all connection with the other 
countries of the world, and were degraded to the position of 
a colony. The mode of governing by a ministry was intended 
to put a stop to these proceedings, which caused the rights of 
the country to moulder uselessly in its parchments ; by the 
change,* these rights and the royal oath were both to become 
a reality. It was the apprehension of this, and especially 
the fear of losing its control over the money and blood of the 
country, which caused the house of Austria to resolve on 
involving Hungary, by the foulest intrigues, in the horrors 
of fire and slaughter, that, having plunged the country in a 
civil war, it might seize the opportunity to dismember the 
kingdom, and to blot out the name of Hungary from the 
list of independent nations, and unite its plundered and 
bleeding limbs with the Austrian monarchy. 

The beginning of this course was, (after a Ministry had 
been called into existence), by ordering an Austrian general 
[Jellachich] to rise in rebellion against the laws of the 
country, and nominating him Ban of Croatia, a kingdom 
belonging to the kingdom of Hungary. * * * 

The Ban revolted therefore in the name of the emperor, 
and rebelled openly against the king of Hungary, who is 
however one and the same person ; and he went so far as to 
decree the separation of Croatia and Slavonia from Hungary , 
with which they had been united for eight hundred years, as 
well as to incorporate them with the Austrian empire. Public 
opinion and undoubted facts threw the blame of these pro- 
ceedings on the Archduke Louis, uncle to the emperor, on his 

* The change was solemnly enacted in the Parhamentary Laws 
of March, 1848, which King Ferdinand Y sanctioned by his pubHc 
oath in April, 1848. 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 15 

brother, the Archduke Francis Charles, and especially on the 
consort of the last-named prince, the Archduchess Sophia ; 
and since the Ban, in this act of rebellion, openly alleged that 
he acted as a faithful subject of the emperor, the ministry of 
Hungary requested their sovereign, by a public declaration, 
to wipe off the stigma which these proceedings threw upon 
the family. At that moment affairs were not prosperous for 
Austria in Italy ; the emperor therefore did proclaim that 
the Ban and his associates were guilty of high treason, and 
of exciting to rebellion. But while publishing this edict, 
the Ban and his accomplices were covered with favours at 
court, and supplied for their enterprize with money, arms, 
and ammunition. The Hungarians, confiding in the royal 
proclamation, and not wishing to provoke a civil conflict, did 
not hunt out those proscribed traitors in their lair, and only 
adopted measures for checking any extension of the rebellion. 
But soon afterward the inhabitants of South Hungary, of 
Servian race, were excited to rebellion by precisely the same 
means. 

These were also declared by the king to be rebels, but were 
nevertheless, like the others, supplied with money, arms, and 
ammunition. The king's commissioned officers and civil 
servants enlisted bands of robbers in the principality of Servia 
to strengthen the rebels, and aid them in massacring the 
peaceable Hungarian and German inhabitants of the Banat. 
The command of these rebellious bodies was further entrusted 
to the rebel leaders of the Croatians. 

During this rebellion of the Hungarian Servians, scenes of 
cruelty were witnessed at which the heart shudders ; the 
peaceable inhabitants were tortured with a cruelty which 
makes the hair stand on end. Whole towns and villages, 
once flourishing, were laid waste. Hungarians fleeing 
before these murderers were reduced to the condition of 
vagrants and beggars in their own country ; the most lovely 
districts were converted into a wilderness. * * * 

The greater part of the Hungarian regiments were, according 
to the old system of government, scattered through the other 
provinces of the empire. In Hungary itself, the troops 
quartered were mostly Austrian; and they afforded more 



16 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

protection to the rebels than to the laws, or to the internal 
peace of the country. The withdrawal of these troops, and 
the return of the national militia, was demanded of the 
government, but was either refused, or its fulfilment delayed; 
and when our brave comrades, on hearing the distress of the 
country, returned in masses, they were persecuted, and such 
as were obliged to yield to superior force were disarmed, 
and sentenced to death for having defended their country 
against rebels. 

The Hungarian ministry begged the king earnestly to issue 
orders to all troops and commanders of fortresses in Hungary, 
enjoining fidelity to the Constitution, and obedience to the 
ministers of Hungary. Such a proclamation was sent to the 
Palatine, the viceroy of Hungary, Archduke Stephen, at Buda. 
The necessary letters were written and sent to the post-office. 
Bat this nephew of the king, the Archduke Palatine, shame- 
lessly caused these letters to be smuggled back from the post- 
office, although they had been countersigned by the responsible 
ministers ; and they were afterward found among his papers 
when he treacherously departed from the country. 

The rebel Ban menaced the Hungarian coast with an 
attack, and the government, with the king's consent, ordered 
an armed corps to march into Styria for the defence of 
Piume ; but this whole force recei^'ed orders to march into 
Italy. * * * 

The rebel force occupied Fiume, and disunited it from 
the kingdom of Hungary, and this hateful deception was 
disavowed by the Vienna cabinet as having been a misimder- 
standing ; the furnishing of arms, ammunition, and money 
to the rebels of Croatia w^as also declared to have been 
a misunderstanding. Pinally, instructions were issued to the 
effect that, until special orders were given, the army and the 
commanders of fortresses were not to follow the orders of 
the Hungarian ministers, but were to execute those of the 
Austrian cabinet. * * * 

The king from that moment began to address the man 
whom he himself had branded as a rebel, as ''dear and loyal" 
(Lieber Getreuer) ; he praised him for having revolted, and 
encouraged him to proceed in the path he had entered upon. 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 17 

He expressed a like sympathy for the Servian rebels, whose 
hands yet reeked from the massacres they had perpetrated. 
It was under this command that the Ean of Croatia, after 
being proclaimed as a rebel, assembled an army, and an- 
nounced his commission from the king to carry fire and sword 
into Hungary, upon which the Austrian troops stationed in 
the country united with him. * * * 

Even then the Diet did not give up all confidence in the 
power of the royal oath, and the king was once more requested 
to order the rebels to quit the country. The answer given 
was a reference to a manifesto of the Austrian ministry, de- 
claring it to be their determination to deprive the Hungarian 
nation of the independent management of their financial, 
commercial, and war affairs. The king at the same time 
refused his assent to the bills submitted for approval 
respecting troops and the subsidy for covering the expen- 
diture. 

Upon this the Hungarian ministers resigned, but the names 
submitted by the president of the council, at the demand of 
the king, were not approved of for successors. The Diet 
then, bound by its duty to secure the safety of the country, 
voted the supplies, and ordered the troops to be levied. The 
nation obeyed the summons with readiness. 

The representatives of the people then summoned the 
nephew of the emperor to join the camp, and as Palatine* to 
lead the troops against the rebels. He not only obeyed the 
summons, but made public professions of his devotion to the 
cause. As soon, however, as an engagement threatened, he 
fled secretly from the camp and the country, like a coward 
traitor. Among his papers a plan, formed by him some time 
previously, was found, according to which Hungary was to be 
simultaneously attacked on nine sides at once — from Styria, 
Austria, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, and Transylvania. 

From a correspondence with the Minister of War, seized 
at the same time, it was discovered that the commanding 
generals in the military frontier and the Austrian provinces 

* The Palatine was a high officer elected by the Diet, as its organ, 
and the defender of its Constitution. In fact, they always elected a 
prince of the blood royal. He was virtually a Yiceroy. 



18 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

adjoining Hungary had received orders to enter Hungary, and 
to support the rebels with their united forces. 

This attack from nine points at once really began. The 
most painful aggression took place in Transylvania ; for the 
traitorous commander in that district did not content himself 
with the practices considered lawful in war by disciplined 
troops. He stirred up the Wallachian peasants to take up 
arms against their own constitutional rights, and, aided by the 
rebellious Servian hordes, commenced a course of Vandalism 
and extinction, sparing neither women, children, nor aged 
men; murdering and torturing the defenceless Hungarian 
inhabitants ; burning the most flourishing villages and towns, 
among which, Nagy-Igmand, the seat of learning for Tran- 
sylvania, was reduced to a heap of ruins. 

But the Hungarian nation, although taken by surprize, 
unarmed and unprepared, did not abandon its future prospects 
in any agony of despair. 

Measures were immediately taken to increase the small 
standing army by volunteers and the levy of the people. 
These troops, supplying the want of experience by the en- 
thusiasm arising from the feeling that they had right on their 
side, defeated the Croatian armaments, and drove them out 
of the country. * * * 

The defeated army fled in the direction of Vienna, where 
the emperor continued his demoralizing policy, and nominated 
the beaten and flying rebel as his plenipotentiary and sub- 
stitute in Hungary, suspending by this act the constitution 
and institutions of the country, all its authorities, courts of 
justice, and tribunals, laying the kingdom under martial law, 
and placing in the hand of, and under the unlimited authority 
of, a rebel, the honour, the property, and the lives of the 
people ; in the hand of a man who, with armed bands, had 
braved the laws, and attacked the Constitution of the country. 

But the house of Austria was not contented with the un- 
justifiable violation of oaths taken by its head. 

The rebellious Ban was taken under the protection of the 
troops stationed near Vienna, and commanded by Prince 
Windischgratz. These troops, after taking Vienna by storm, 
were led as an imperial Austrian army to conquer Hungary. 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 19 

But the Hungarian nation, persisting in its loyalty, sent an 
envoy to the advancing enemy. This envoy, coming under a 
flag of truce, was treated as a prisoner, and thrown into 
prison. No heed was paid to the remonstrances and the 
demands of the Hungarian nation for justice. The threat of 
the gallows was, on the contrary, thundered against all who 
had taken arms in defence of a wretched and oppressed 
country. But before the army had time to enter Hungary, a 
family revolution in the tyrannical reigning house was per- 
petrated at Olmiitz. Ferdinand Y. was forced to resign a 
throne which had been polluted with so much blood and 
peijury, and the soi^ of Francis Charles, (who also abdicated 
his claim to the inheritance,) the youthful Archduke Francis 
Joseph, caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of Austria 
and King of Hungary. But no one can by any family com- 
pact dispose of the constitutional throne without the Hun- 
garian nation. 

At this critical moment the Hungarian nation demanded 
nothing more than the maintenance of its laws and insti- 
tutions, and peace guaranteed by their integrity. Had the 
assent of the nation to this change in the occupant of the 
throne been asked in a legal manner, and the young prince 
offered to take the customary oath that he would preserve the 
Constitution, the Hungarian nation would not have refused 
to elect him king in accordance with the treaties extant, and 
to crown him with St. Stephen's crown, before he had dipped 
his hand in the blood of the people. 

He however, refusing to perform an act so sacred in the 
eyes of God and man, and in strange contrast to the innocence 
natural to youthful breasts, declared in his first words his in- 
tention of conquering Hungary, (which he dared to call a 
rebellious country, whereas it was he himself that raised re- 
bellion there,) and of depriving it of that independence which 
it had maintained for a thousand years, to incorporate it into 
the Austrian monarchy. * * * 

But even then an attempt was made to bring about a 
peaceful arrangement, and a deputation was sent to the 
generals of the perjured dynasty. This house in its blind 
self-confidence, refused to enter into any negotiation, and 



20 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

dared to demand an unconditional submission from the nation. 
The deputation was further detained, and one of the number, 
the former President* of the Ministry, was even thrown into 
prison. Our deserted capital was occupied, and was turned 
into a place of execution ; a part of the prisoners of war 
were there consigned to the axe, another part were thrown 
into dungeons, while the remainder were exposed to fearful 
sufferings from hunger, and were thus forced to enter the ranks 
of the army in Italy. 

f Finally, to reap the fruit of so much perfidy, the Emperor 
Francis Joseph dared to call himself King of Hungary, in 
the manifesto of the 9 th of March [184^], wherein he openly 
declares that he erases the Hungarian nation from the list of 
the independent nations of Europe, and that he divides its 
territory into five parts, cutting off Transylvania, Croatia, 
Slavonia, and Fiume from Hungary, creating at the same 
time a principality (vayvodeschaft) for the Servian rebels, 
and, having paralyzed the political existence of the country, 
declares it incorporated into the Austrian monarchy. 

The measure of the crimes of the Austrian house was, 
however, filled up, when, after J its defeat, it applied for help 
to the Emperor of Eussia ; and, in spite of the remonstrances 
and protestations of the Porte, and of the consuls of the 
European powers at Bucharest, in defiance of international 
rights, and to the endangering of the balance of power in 
Europe, caused the Eussian troops, stationed at Wallachia, 
to be led into Transylvania, for the destruction of the Hun- 
garian nation. 

Three months ago we were driven back upon the Theiss ; 
our just arms have already recovered all Transylvania; 
Klausenburg, Hermanstadt, and Kronstadt are taken ; one 
portion of the troops of Austria is driven into Bukowina; 

* Louis Bathyanyi. See Note to p. 6. 

t This paragraph, omitted above, is inserted here, where the 
reader will better understand it. 

J The Russian army entered Transylvania on January 3d, 1849 ; 
this is the army which was driven out again. But the main Eussian 
armies were only on the move in April, and took two months longer 
to enter Hungary. These vfere apphed for late in March. 



BY THE HUNGARIAN NATION. 21 

another, together with the Eussian force sent to aid them, is 
totally defeated, and to the last man obliged to evacuate 
Transylvania, and to flee into Wallachia. Upper Hungary 
is cleared of foes. 

The Servian rebellion is further suppressed ; the forts of 
St. Thomas and the Eoman intrenchment have been taken by 
storm, and the whole country between the Danube and the 
Theiss, including the county of Bacs, has been recovered for 
the nation. 

The commander-in-chief of the perjured house of Austria 
has himself been defeated in five consecutive battles, and has 
with his whole army been driven back upon and even over 
the Danube. 

Founding a line of conduct upon all these occurrences, 
and confiding in the justice of an eternal God, we, in the face 
of the civilized world, in reliance upon the natural rights of 
the Hungarian nation, and upon the power it has developed 
to maintain them, further impelled by that sense of duty 
which urges every nation to defend its existence, do hereby 
declare and proclaim, in the name of the nation legally re- 
presented by us, the following : — 

1st. Hungary, with Transylvania, as legally united with it, 
and the possessions and dependencies, are hereby declared to 
constitute a free, independent sovereign state. The territorial 
unity of this state is declared to be inviolable, and its territory 
to be indivisible. 

2d. The house of Hapsburg-Lorraine — having, by treachery, 
perjury, and levying of war against the Hungarian nation, as 
well as by its outrageous violation of all compacts, in breaking 
up the integral territory of the kingdom, in the separation of 
Transylvania, Croatia, Slavonia, Fiume, and its districts, from 
Hungary — further, by compassing the destruction of the in- 
dependence of the country by arms, and by calling in the 
disciplined army of a foreign power, for the purpose of 
annihilating its nationality, by violation both of the Pragmatic 
Sanction and of treaties concluded between Austria and 
Hungary, on which the alliance between the two countries 
depended — is, as treacherous and perjured, for ever excluded 
from the throne of the united states of Hungary and Tran- 



22 DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

sylvania, and all their possessions and dependencies, and are 
hereby deprived of the style and title, as well as of the 
armorial bearings belonging to the crown of Hungary, and 
declared to be banished for ever from the united countries 
and their dependencies and possessions. They are therefore 
declared to be deposed, degraded, and banished for ever from 
the Hungarian territory. 

3d. The Hungarian nation, in the exercise of its rights and 
sovereign will, being determined to assume the position of a 
free and independent state among the nations of Europe, 
declares it to be its intention to establish and maintain 
friendly and neighbourly relations with those states with which 
it was formerly united under the same sovereign, as well as 
to contract alliances with all other nations. 

4th. The form of government to be adopted for the future 
will be fixed by the Diet of the nation. 

But until this point shall be decided, on the basis of the 
foregoing and received principles which have been recognized 
for ages, the government of the united countries, their pos- 
sessions and dependencies, shall be conducted on personal 
responsibility, and under the obligation to render an account 
of all acts, by Louis Kossuth, who has by acclamation, and 
with the unanimous approbation of the Diet of the nation, 
been named Governing President (Gubernator), and the 
ministers whom he shall appoint. 

And this resolution of ours we proclaim for the knowledge 
of all nations of the civilized world, with the conviction that 
the Hungarian nation will be received by them among the 
free and independent nations of the world, wdth the same 
friendship and free acknowledgment of its rights which the 
Hungarians proffer to other countries. 

We also hereby proclaim and make known to all the in- 
habitants of the united states of Hungary and Transylvania, 
their possessions and dependencies, that all authorities, 
communes, towns, and the civil officers, both in the counties 
and cities, are completely set free and released from all the 
obligations under which they stood, by oath or otherwise, to 
the said house of Hapsburg ; and that any individual daring 
to contravene this decree, and by word or deed in any way to 



FIRST SPEECH AT NEW YORK. 23 

aid or abet any one violating it, shall be treated and punished 
as guilty of high treason. And by the publication of this 
decree, we hereby bind and oblige all the inhabitants of these 
countries to obedience to the government, now instituted for- 
mally, and endowed with all necessary legal powers. 
Debreczin April 14, 1849. 



Y.— STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND AIMS. 

\_Castle Garden, New YorJc, Dec. Qth.'] 

After apologies for his weakness through the effects of the 
sea, Kossuth continued : — 

Citizens ! much as I want some hours of rest, much as I 
need to become acquainted with my ground, before I enter 
publicly on matters of business, I yet took it for a duty of 
honour to respond at once to your generous welcome. I 
have to thank the People, the Congress, and the Govern- 
ment of the United States for my liberation. I must not 
tiy to express what I felt, when I, — a wanderer, — but not 
the less the legitimate official chief of Hungary, — first saw the 
glorious flag of the stripes and stars fluttering over my head 
— when I saw around me the gallant officers and the crew of 
the Mississippi frigate — most of them worthy representatives 
of true American principles, American greatness, American 
generosity. It was not a mere chance which cast the star- 
spangled banner around me ; it was your protecting will. 
The United States of America, conscious of their glorious 
calling as well as of their power, declared by this unparal- 
leled act their resolve to become the protectors of human 
rights. To see a powerful vessel of America, coming to far 
Asia, in order to break the chains by which the mightiest 
despots of Europe fettered the activity of an exiled Magyar, 
whose name disturbed their sleep — to be restored by such a 
protection to freedom and activity — you may weU conceive, 
was intensely felt by me ; as indeed I still feel it. Others 
sjjoJce — ^you acted; and I was free ! You acted ; and at this 
act of yours tyrants trembled ; humanity shouted out with 
joy ; the Magyar nation, crushed, but not broken, raised its 



24 THANKS FOR HIS LIBERATION. 

head with resokitioR and with hope ; and the brilliancy of 
your stars was greeted by Europe's oppressed millions as the 
morning star of liberty. Now, gentlemen, you must be 
aware how gTeat my gratitude must be. You have restored 
me to life — in restoring me to activity ; and should my life, 
by the blessing of the Almighty, still prove useful to my 
fatherland and to humanity, it will be your merit — it will be 
your work. May you and your country be blessed for it ! 

Your generous part in my liberation is taken by the world 
for the revelation of the fact, that the United States are 
resolved not to allow the despots of the world to trample on 
oppressed humanity. That is why my liberation was cheered 
from Sweden to Portugal, as a ray of hope. Even those 
nations v>^hich most desire my presence in Europe now, have 
said to me, " Hasten on, hasten on, to the great, free, rich, 
and powerful people of the United States, and bring over its 
brotherly aid to the cause of your country, so intimately 
connected with European liberty;" and here I stand to 
plead the cause' of common human rights before your great 
Uepublic. Humble as I am, God the Almighty has selected 
me to represent the cause of humanity before you. My 
warrant hereto is written in the sympathy and confidence of 
all who are oppressed, and of all who, as your elder sister 
the British nation, sympathize with the oppressed. It is 
written in the hopes and expectations you have entitled the 
world to entertain, by liberating me out of my prison. But 
it has pleased the Almighty to make out of my humble self 
yet another opportunity for a thing which may prove a happy 
turning-point in the destinies of the world. I bring you 
a brotherly greeting from the people of Great Britain. I 
speak not in an official character, imparted by diplomacy, 
whose secrecy is the curse of the world, but I am the har- 
binger of the public spirit of the people, which I witnessed 
pronouncing itself in the most decided manner, openly — that 
the people of England, united to you with enlightened bro- 
therly love, as it is united in blood — conscious of your 
strength as it is conscious of its own, has for ever abandoned 
every sentiment of irritation and rivalry, and desires the 
brotherlv alliance of the United States to secure to everv 



GREETING FROM GREAT BRITAIN. 25 

nation the sovereign right to dispose of itself, and to protect 
that right against encroaching arrogance. It desires to 
league with you against the league of despots, and with you 
to stand sponsor at the approaching baptism of European 
liberty. 

Now, gentlemen, I have stated my position. I am a 
straightforward man. I am a republican. I have avowed 
it openly in monarchical but free England ; and am happy 
to state that I have lost nothing by this avowal there. I 
hope I shall not lose here, in republican America, by that 
frankness, which must be one of the chief qualities of every 
republican. So I beg leave openly to state the following 
points : First, that I take it to be duty of honour and 
principle not to meddle with any party- question of your own 
domestic affairs. Secondly, T profess my admiration for 
the glorious principle of union, on which stands the mighty 
pyramid of your greatness. Taking my ground on this 
constitutional fact, it is not to a party, but to your united 
people that I will confidently address my humble requests. 
Within the limits of your laws I will use every honest exer- 
tion to gain your effectual sympathy, and your financial 
material and political aid for my country's freedom and 
independence, and entreat the realization of the hopes w^hich 
your generosity has raised. And, therefore, thirdly, I 
frankly state that my aim is to restore my fatherland to the 
full enjoyment of her own independence, which has been 
legitimately declared, and cannot have lost its rightfulness 
by the violent invasion of foreign Eussian arms. What can 
be opposed to it ? The frown of Mr. Hulsemann — the anger 
of that satellite of the Czar, called Erancis- Joseph of Austria! 
and the immense danger (with which some European and 
American papers threaten you), lest your minister at 
Vienna receive his passports, and Mr. Hulsemann leave 
Washington, should I be received in my official capacity ? 
Now, as to your Minister at Vienna, how you can reconcile 
the letting him stay there with your opinion of the cause of 
Hungary, I do not know ; for the present absolutist atmos- 
phere of Europe is not very propitious to American principles. 
But as to Mr. Hulsemann, do not believe that he would be 

2 



26 HIS PRINCIPLES AND AIMS. 

SO ready to leave Washington. He has extremely well 
digested the caustic words which Mr. Webster has adminis- 
tered to him so gloriously. I know that your public spirit 
would never allow any responsible depository of the executive 
power to be regulated in its policy by all the Hulsemanns or 
all the Francis-Josephs in the world. But it is also my 
agreeable conviction that the highminded Government of the 
United States shares warmly the sentiments of the people. 
It has proved it by executing in a ready and dignified 
manner the resolution of Congress on behalf of my liberation. 
It has proved it by calling on the Congress to consider how 
I shall be received, and even this morning I was honoured 
by the express order of the Government with an official salute 
from the batteries of the United States, in a manner in 
which, according to the military rules, only a high official 
personage can be greeted. 

I came not to your glorious shores to enjoy a happy rest 
— I came not to gather triumphs of personal distinction, 
but as a humble petitioner, in my country's name, as its freely 
chosen constitutional leader, to entreat your generous aid. 
I have no other claims than those which the oppressed prin- 
ciple of freedom has to the aid of victorious liberty. If you 
consider these claims not sufficient for your active and 
effectual sympathy, then let me know at once that the hopes 
have failed, with which Europe has looked to your great, 
mighty, and glorious Eepublic — let me know it at once that I 
may hasten back and say to the oppressed nations, *' Let us 
fight, forsaken and single-handed, the battle of Leonidas ; let 
us trust to God, to our right, and to our good sword ; for we 
have no other help on earth." But if your generous Ee- 
publican hearts are animated by the high principle of freedom 
and of the community in human destinies, — if you have the 
will, as undoubtedly you have the power, to support the 
cause of freedom against the sacrilegious league of despotism, 
then give me some days of calm reflection, to become ac- 
quainted with the ground upon which I stand — let me take 
kind advice as to my course — let me learn whether any steps 
have been already taken in favour of that cause which I have 
the honour to represent ; and then let me have a new oppor- 



BALTIMORE RESOLUTIONS. 27 

tunity to expound before you my humble request in a 
practical way. 

I confidently hope, Mr. Mayor, the Corporation and 
Citizens of the Empire City will grant me a second oppor- 
tunity. If this be your generous will, then let me take this for 
a boon of happier days; and let me add, with a sigh of 
thanksgiving to the Almighty God, that Providence has 
selected your glorious country to be the pillar of freedom, as 
it is already the asylum to oppressed humanity. 

I am told that I shall have the high honour to review your 
patriotic militia. My heart throbs at the idea of seeing this 
gallant army enlisted on the side of freedom against despotism. 
The world would then soon be free, and you the saviours of 
humanity. Citizens of New-York, it is under your protection 
that I place the sacred cause of freedom and the independence 
of Hungary. 



•IHI*' 



YI.— EEPLY TO THE BALTIMOEE ADDRESS. 
[Dec, 10th, 1851.] 

Mr. Henry P. Brooks, Chairman of the Committee of the 
Baltimore City Council, came forward, and after congratu- 
lating Kossuth upon his release from peril, and arrival in 
America, he presented the following resolutions of the Council 
written on parchment :— 

In City Council. 

Whereas it is understood that Louis Kossuth, the illustrious Hun- 
garian patriot and exile, is about seeking an asylum upon our shores ; 
and whereas it is beheved that the city of Baltimore, in common 
with the whole people of the United States, feel a deep and abiding 
interest in the cause of freedom wherever it is assailed, and entertain 
the most sincere regret for the unfortunate condition of Hungary ; 
and whereas, in the reception of Kossuth, an opportunity is offered 
of expressing our sympathy for the cause of Hungarian independence 
— of recording our detestation of the unholy coahtion by which that 
gallant people have been crushed, and of evincing our admiration of 
the noble conduct of the Turkish Sultan in refusing to deliver to the 
despots of Em'ope that illustrious exile and patriot whom it is about 
to be our privilege and pride to receive, as it befits the chosen people 



28 KOSSUTH^S REPLY. 

of liberty to receive one who has so nobly battled and suffered in 
that sacred cause : therefore — 

Ilesolved, By the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, that we 
look to the arrival of Kossuth upon our shores with mingled feelings 
of satisfaction and regret — satisfaction that we are enabled to afford 
a safe asylum to an illustrious patriot — regret that the cause of 
liberty should give birth to such necessity. 

JResolved, That we sympathize fully with the Hungarians in their 
important struggles for Independence, but mindful of that Providence 
which croT\Tied our own efforts for Hberty with success, trust yet to 
behold that glorious future which their noble leader so eloquently 
predicts for his beloved country. 

Hesolved, That we regard the alUance with Russia and Austria for 
the purpose of crushing the spirit of liberty in Hungary as a fit 
accompaniment in the annals of time for the infamous partition of 
unfortunate Poland by the same tyrannical powers, each alike worthy 
of the execration of the civilized world. 

JResolved, That we cordially welcome Kossuth and his exiled com- 
panions to the full enjoyment of American Hberty and an asylum 
beyond the reach of European despotism. 

Resolved^ farther, That a Joint Committee of five from each 
branch of the City Council be appointed, whose duty it shall be, in 
conjunction with the Mayor, in the event of their arrival in our city, 
to tender to them appropriate pubUc tokens of our esteem and 
admiration for their gallant conduct, as well as of our sympathy for 
their sufferings and their cause. 

Committee under the last resolution — First Branch : Henry P. 
Brooke, John Dukehart, J. Hanson Thomas, David Blanford, John 
Thomas Morris. 

Second Branch : Jacob J. Cohen, W. B. Morris, Hugh A. Cooper, 
James C. Ninde, G-eo. A. Lovering. 

John H. J. Jerome, Mayor. 

John S. Beown, President of First Branch. 

Hugh Bolton, President of Second Branch. 

City of Baltimore, State of Maryland, United States of America, 
Oct. 28, A.D. 1851. 

[After hearing several other complimentary addresses, 
Kossuth in a few minutes replied. He began with apologies, 
and then proceeded] : — 

Permit me to say, that in my opinion the word " glory " 
should be blotted out from the Dictionary in respect to in- 
dividuals, and only left for use in respect to nations. What- 
ever a man can do for his country, even though he should 



AIM OF THE HUNGARIAN REFORMS. 29 

live a long life, and have the strongest faculties, would not 
be too much : for he ought to use his utmost exertions, and 
his utmost powers, in return for the gifts he receives. What- 
ever a man can do on behalf of his country and of humanity, 
would never be so much as his duty caUs upon him to do, 
still less so much as to merit the use of the word '* glory " 
in regard to himself. Once more, I say, that duty belongs 
to the man, and glory to the nation. When an honest man 
does his duty to his own country, and becomes a patriot, he 
acts for all humanity, and does his duty to mankind. 

You have bestowed great attention upon the cause of 
Hungary, and the subject is here well understood generally, 
which is a benefit to me. I declare to you all, that I find 
more exact knowledge of the Hungarian cause here, than in 
any other place I have been. Yet I am astonished to see 
in a report of the proceedings of the United States Senate, 
that a member rose and said that we were not struggling for 
the principle of Freedom and of Liberty, but rather for the 
support of our ancient Charter. This, gentlemen, is a mis- 
representation of our cause. There is a truth in the assertion 
that we were struggling for our ancient rights, for the right 
of self-government is an ancient right. The right of self- 
government was ours a thousand years ago, and has been 
guaranteed to us by the coronation oaths of more than thirty 
of our kings. I say that this right was guaranteed to us, 
yet it had become a dead letter in the course of time. Before 
the Eevolution of 1848 we were long struggling to enforce 
our notorious but often invaded rights ; but the whole people 
were not interested in them : for although they were consti- 
tutional rights, they were restricted in ancient times, not to a 
particular race, but to a particular class, called Nobles. 
These did not belong to the Magyars alone, but to all the 
. races that settled in the country, to the Sclaves, to the 
WaUachians, the Serbs, and to others, whatever their race or 
their extraction. Yet none but the Nobles were privileged. 
We saw that for one class only to be interested in these rights 
was not enough, and we wished to make them a benefit to 
every man in the country, and to replace the old Constitution 
by one which should give a common and universal right to 
all men to vote, without regard to the tongue they speak or 



30 AIM or THE HUNGARIAN REFORMS. 

the Church at which they pray. I need not enter further 
into the subject than to say, that we established a system of 
practically universal suffrage, of equality in representation, a 
just share in taxation for the support of the State, an equality 
in the benefits of public education, and in all those blessings 
which are derived from the freedom of a free people. 

It has been asked by some, why I allowed a treacherous 
general to ruin our cause. I have always been anxious not 
to assume any duty for which I might be unsuited. If I had 
undertaken the practical direction of military operations, and 
anything went amiss, I feared that my conscience would 
torture me, as guilty of the fall of my country, as I had not 
been familiar with military tactics. I therefore entrusted my 
country's cause, thus far, into other hands ; and I weep for 
the result. In exile, I have tried to profit by the past and 
prepare for the future. I believe that the confidence of 
Hungary in me is not shaken by misfortune nor broken by 
my calumniators. I have had all in my own hands once ; 
and if ever I am in the same position again, I will act. I , 
will not become a Napoleon nor an Alexander, and labour for 
my own ambition ; but I will labour for freedom and for the 
moral well-being of man. I do but ask you to enforce your 
own great constitutional principles, and not permit Eussia 
to interfere. 



YII.— HEREDITAEY POLICY OF AMEEICA. 

\_8peech at the Corporation Dinner New YorJc^ Dec. 11th, 1851.] 

The Mayor having made an address to Kossuth, closed 
by proposing the following toast : — 

" HuNaARY — Betrayed but not subdued. Her call for help is but 
the echo of our appeal against the tread of the oppressor." 

Kossuth rose to reply. The enthusiasm with which he 
was greeted was unparallelled. It shook the building, and 
the chandeliers and candelabras trembled before it. Every 
one present rose to his feet, and appeared excited to frenzy. 
The ladies participated in honouring the Hungarian hero. At 
length the storm of applause subsided, and then ensued a 
silence most intense. Every eye was fixed on Kossuth, and 



HEREDITARY POLICY. 31 

when he commenced his speech, the noise caused by the 
dropping of a pin could be heard throughout the large and 
capacious room. 

Kossuth's speech. 

Sir, — In returning you my most humble thanks for the 
honour you did me by your toast, and by coupling my name 
with that cause which is the sacred aim of my life, I am so 
overwhelmed with emotion by all it has been my strange lot 
to experience since I am on your glorious shores, that I am 
unable to find words ; and knowing that all the honour I meet 
with has the higher meaning of principles, I beg leave at once 
to fall back on my duties, which are the lasting topics of my 
reflections, my sorrows, and my hopes. I take the present 
for a highly important opportunity, which may decide the 
success or failure of my visit. I must therefore implore 
your indulgence for a pretty long and plain development of 
my views concerning that cause which the citizens of New 
York, and you particularly, gentlemen, honour with generous 
interest. 

When I perceive that the sympathy of your people with 
Hungary is almost universal, and that they pronounce their 
feelings in its favour with a resolution such as denotes noble 
and great deeds about to follow ; I might feel inclined to take 
for granted, at least m princi^ple, that we shall have your 
generous aid for restoring to our land its sovereign indepen- 
dence. Nothing but details of negotiation would seem to be 
left for me, were not my confidence checked, by being told, 
that, according to many of your most distinguished Statesmen, 
it is a ruling principle of your public policy never to interfere 
in European affairs. 

I highly respect the source of this conviction, gentlemen 
This source is your religious attachment to the doctrines of 
those, who bequeathed to you the immortal constitution 
which, aided by the unparalleled benefits of nature, has raised 
you, in seventy-five years, from an infant people to a mighty 
nation. The wisdom of the founders of your great republic 
you see in its happy results. What would be the conse- 
quences of departing from that wisdom, you are not sure. 



33 POLICY NOT A PRINCIPLE. 

You therefore instinctively fear to touch, even with improving 
hands, the dear legacy of those great men. And as to your 
glorious constitution, all humanity can only wish that you 
and your posterity may long preserve this religious attach- 
ment to its fundamental principles, which by no means ex- 
clude development and progress ; and that every citizen of 
your great Union, thankfully acknowledging its immense 
benefits, may never forget to love it more than momentary 
passion or selfish and immediate interest. May every citizen 
of your glorious country for ever remember that a partial 
discomfort of a corner in a large, sure, and comfortable house, 
may be well amended without breaking the foundation ; and 
that amongst all possible means of getting rid of that partial 
discomfort, the worst would be to burn down the house with 
his own hands. 

But while I acknowledge the wisdom of your attachment 
to fundamental doctrines, I beg leave with equal frankness 
to state, that, in my opinion, there can be scarcely anything 
more dangerous to the progressive development of a nation, 
than to mistake for a basis that which is none ; to mistake 
for a principle that which is but a transitoiy convenience ; to 
take for substantial that which is but accidental ; or to take 
for a constitutional doctrine that which is but a momentary 
exigency of administrative policy. Such a course of action 
would be like to a healthy man refusing substantial food, 
because when he was once weak in stomach his physician 
ordered him a severe diet. Let me suppose, gentlemen, that 
that doctrine of non-interference was really bequeathed to 
you by your Washingtons (and that it was not, I will essay to 
prove afterwards), and let me even suppose that your Wash- 
ingtons imparted to it such an interpretation, as were equiva- 
lent to the words of Cain, " Am I my brother's keeper ? " 
(which supposition would be, of course, a sacrilege ; but I am 
forced to such suppositions :) I may be entitled to ask, is the 
dress which suited the child, still suitable to the full grown 
man ? Would it not be ridiculous to lay the man into the 
child's cradle, and to sing him to sleep by a lullaby ? In the 
origin of the United States, you were an infant people, and 
you had of course, nothing to do but to grow, to grow, and 



GROWTH OF THE UNITED STATES. 33 

to grow. But now you are so far grown that there is no 
foreign power on earth from which you have anything to fear 
for your existence or security. In fact, your growth is that 
of a giant. Of old, your infant frame was composed of 
thirteen states, and was restricted to the borders of the 
Atlantic : now, your massive bulk is spread to the gulf of 
Mexico and the Pacific, and your territory is a continent. 
Your right hand touches Europe over the waves ; your left 
reaches across the Pacific to eastern Asia ; and there, between 
two quarters of the world, there you stand, in proud immen- 
sity, a world yourselves. Then you were a small people of 
three millions and and a half ; now you are a mighty nation 
of twenty-four millions. Thus you have fully entered into 
the second stadium of national life, in which a nation lives 
at length not for itself separately, but as a member of the 
great family of human nations ; having a right to whatever 
is due from that family towards every one of its full-grown 
members, but also engaged to every duty which that great 
family may claim from every one of its full-grown members. 
A nation may, either from comparative weakness, or by 
choice and policy, as Japan and China, or by both these motives, 
as Paraguay under Dr. Trancia, — be induced to live a life 
secluded from the world, indifferent to the destinies of man- 
kind, in which it cannot or will not have any share. But 
then it must be willing to be also excluded from the benefits 
of progress, civilization and national intercourse, while dis- 
avowing all care about all other nations in the world. No 
citizen of the United States has, or ever will have, the 
wish to see this country degraded to the rotting vegetation of 
a Paraguay, or the mummy existence of a Japan and China. 
The feeling of self-dignity, and the expansiveness of that 
enterprizing spirit which is congenial to freemen, would revolt 
against the very idea of such a degrading national captivity. 
But if there were even a will to live such a mummy life, there 
is no possibility to do so. The very existence of your great 
country, the principles upon which it is founded, its geo- 
graphical position, its present scale of civilization, and all its 
moral and material interests, would lead on your people not 
only to maintain, but necessarily more and more to develop 

2§ 



34 MUTUAL DUTIES OF NATIONS. 

your foreign intercourse. Then, being in so many respects 
linked to mankind at large, you cannot have the will, nor yet 
the power, to remain indifferent to the outward world. And 
if you cannot remain indifferent, you must resolve to throw 
your weight into that balance in which the fate and condition 
of man is weighed. You are a power on earth. You must 
be a power on eatth, and must therefore accept all the conse- 
quences of this position. You cannot allow that any power 
in the world should dispose of the fate of that great family 
of mankind, of which you are so pre-eminent a member : else 

L you would resign your proud place and your still prouder 

fl future, and be a power on earth no more. 

I hope I have sufficiently shown, that should even that 
doctrine of non-interference have been established by the 
founders of your republic, that which might have been very 
proper to your infancy would not now be suitable to your 
manhood. It is a beautiful word of Montesquieu, that re- 
publics are to be founded on virtue. And you know that 
virtue between man and man, as sanctioned by our Christian 
religion, is but an exercise of that great principle — " Thou 
shalt do to others as thou desirest others to do to thee." 
Thus I might rely simply upon your generous republican 
hearts, and upon the consistency of your principles ; but I 
beg to add some essential differences in material respects, 
between your present condition and that of yore. Of your 
twenty-four millions, more than nineteen are spread over 
yonder immense territory, the richest of the world, employed 
in the cultivation of the soil, that honourable occupation, 
which in every time has proved to be the most inexhaustible 
and most unfailing source of public welfare and private happi- 
ness, as also the most unwavering ally of freedom, and the 
most faithful fosterer of all those upright, noble, generous 
sentiments which the constant intercourse with every young, 
every great, every beautiful virtue imparts to man. Now 
this immense agricultural interest, desiring large markets, at 
tlie same time affords a solid basis to your manufacturing 
industry, and in consequence to your immensely developed 
commerce. All this places such a difference between the 
republic of Washington and your present grandeur, that 



VAST COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF THE U.S. 35 

though you may well be attached to your original principles 
(for the principles of liberty are everlastingly the same), 
yet not so in respect to the exigencies of your policy. 'For 
if it is to be regulated by interest, your country has other 
interests to-day than it had then ; and if ever it is to be re- 
gulated by the higher consideration of principles, you are 
strong enough to feel that the time is already come. And I, 
standing here before you to plead the cause of oppressed 
humanity, am bold to declare that there may never again 
come a crisis, at which such an elevation of your policy 
would prove either more glorious to you, or more beneficial to 
man : for we in Europe are apparently on the eve of that day, 
when either the hopes or the fears of oppressed nations will 
be crushed for a long time. 

Having stated so far the difference of the situation, I beg 
leave now to assert that it is an error to suppose that non- 
interference in foreign matters has been bequeathed to the 
people of the United States by your great Washington as a 
doctrine and as a constitutional principle. Firstly, Washing- 
ton never even recommended to you non-interference in the 
sense of indifference to the fate of other nations. He only 
recommended neutrality. And there is a mighty diversity 
between these two ideas. Neutrality has reference to a state 
of war between two belligerent powers, and it is this case 
which Washington contemplated, when he, in his Farewell 
Address, advised the people of the United States not to enter 
into entangling alliances. Let quarrelling powers, let quar- 
relling nations go to war — ^but do you consider your own 
concerns ; leave foreign powers to quarrel about ambitious 
topics, or narrow partial interests. Neutrality is a matter of 
convenience — not of principle. But while neutrality has 
reference to a state of war between belligerent powers, the 
principle of non-interference, on the contrary, lays down the 
sovereign right of nations to arrange their own domestic 
concerns. Therefore these two ideas of neutrality and non- 
interference are entirely different, having reference to two 
entirely different matters. The sovereign right of every 
nation to rule over itself, to alter its own institutions, to 
change the form of its own government, is a common public 



36 COMMON RIGHTS ARE UNDER COMMON GUARANTEE. 

law of nations, common to all, and, tJierefore^ 'put under the 
common guarantee of all. This sovereign right of every 
nation to dispose of itself, you, the people of the United 
States, must recognize ; for it is a common law of mankind, 
in which, because it is such, every nation is equally inte- 
rested. You must recognize it, secondly, because the very 
existence of your great republic, as also the independence of 
every nation, rests upon this ground. If that sovereign 
right of nations were no common public law of mankind, 
then your own independence would be no matter of right, 
but only a matter of fact, which might be subject, for all 
future time, to all sorts of chances from foreign conspiracy 
and violence. And where is the citizen of the United States 
who would not revolt at the idea that this great republic is 

' not a righteous nor a lawful existence, but only a mere acci- 
dent — a mere matter of fact ? If it were so, you were not 
entitled to invoke the protection of God for your great coun- 
try ; for the protection of God cannot, without sacrilege, be 
invoked but in behalf of justice and right. You would have 
no right to look to the sympathy of mankind for yourselves ; 
for you would profess an abrogation of the laws of humanity 
upon which is founded your own independence, your own 
nationality. 

Now, gentlemen, if these be principles of common law, of 
that law which God has given to every nation of humanity — 
if to organize itself is the common lawful right of every 
nation ; then the interference with this common law of all 
humanity, the violent act of hindering, by armed forces, a 
nation from exercising that sovereign right, must be consi- 
dered as a violation of that common public law upon which 
your very existence rests, and which, being a common law of 

^ all humanity, is, by God himself, placed under the safeguard 
of all humanity ; for it is God himself who commands us to 
love our neighbours as we love ourselves, and to do towards 
others as we desire others to do towards us. Upon this 
point you cannot remain indifferent. You may well remain 
neutral to war between two belligerent nations, but you 
cannot remain indifferent to the violation of the common law 
of humanity. That indifference Washington has never taught 



NEUTRALITY A TEMPORARY POLICY. 37 

you. I defy any man to show me, out of the eleven volumes 
of Washington's writings, a single word to that effect. He 
could not have recommended this indifference without ceasing 
to be wise as he was ; for without justice there is no wisdom 
on earth. He could not have recoipmended it without 
becoming inconsistent ; for it was this common law of man- 
kind which your fathers invoked before God and man when 
they proclaimed your independence. It was he himself, 
your great Washington, who not only accepted, but again 
and again asked, foreign aid — foreign help for the support 
of that common law of mankind in respect to your own in- 
dependence. Knowledge and instruction are so universally 
spread amongst the enlightened people of the United States, 
the history of your country is such a household science at 
the most lonely hearths of your remotest settlements, that 
it may be sufficient for me to refer, in that respect, to the 
instructions and correspondence between Washington and 
the Minister at Paris — the equally immortal Eranklin — the 
modest man with the proud epitaph, which tells the world 
that he wrested the lightning from heaven, and the sceptre 
from the tyrant's hands. 

I will go further. Even that doctrine of neutrality which 
Washington taught and bequeathed to you, he taught not as 
a constitutional j^r^'^ci^^^ — a lasting regulation for all future 
time, but only as a matter of temporary 'policy. I refer in 
that respect to the very words of his Farewell Address. 
There he states explicitly that ''it is your policy to steer 
clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign 
world." These are his very words. Policy is the word, 
and you know that policy is not the science of principle, but 
of exigencies ; and that principles are, of course, by a free 
and powerful nation, never to be sacrificed to exigencies. 
The exigencies pass away like the bubbles of a shower, 
but the nation is immortal: it must consider the future also, 
and not only the egotistical dominion of the passing hour : 
it must be aware that to an immortal nation nothing can 
be of higher importance than immortal principles. Again, 
in the same address Washington explicitly says, in reference 
to his policy of neutrality, that " with him a predominant 



38 WASHINGTON WAS WISELY CAUTIOUS. 

motive has been to gain time to your country to settle and 
mature its institutions, and to progress without interruption 
to that degree of strength and consistency which is neces- 
sary to give it the command of its own fortunes." These 
are highly memorable words, gentlemen. Here I take my 
ground; and casting a glance of admiration over your 
glorious land, I confidently ask you, gentlemen, are your 
institutions settled and matured or are they not ? Are you, 
or are you not, come to such a degree of strength and con- 
sistency as to be the masters of your own fortunes ? Oh ! 
how do I thank God for having given me the glorious view 
of this country's greatness, which answers this question for 
me ! Yes ! you have attained that degree of strength and 
consistency in which your less fortunate brethren may well 
claim your protecting hand. 

One word more on Washington's doctrines. In one of his 
letters, written to Lafayette, he says : — " Let us only have 
twenty years of peace, and our country will come to such a 
degree of power and wealth that we shall be able, in a just 
cause, to defy any power on earth whatsoever.*' " In a just 
cause !" Now, in the name of eternal truth, and by aU that 
is dear and sacred to man, since the history of mankind is 
recorded, there has been no cause more just than the cause of 
Hungary. Never was there a people, without the slightest 
reason, more sacrilegiously, more treacherously attacked, or 
by fouler means than Hungary. Never has crime, cursed 
ambition, despotism, and violence, united more wickedly 
to crush freedom, and the very life, than against Hungary. 
Never was a country more mortally aggrieved than Hungary 
is. All your sufferings — aU your complaints, which, with so 
much right, drove your forefathers to take up arms, are but 
slight grievances in comparison with those immense deep 
wounds, out of which the heart of Hungary bleeds ! If the 
cause of our people is not sufficiently just to insure the pro- 
tection of God, and the support of right-willing men- — then 
there is no just cause, and no justice on earth. Then the 
blood of no new Abel wiU moan towards Heaven. The 
genius of charity. Christian love, and justice wiU mouniingly 
fly the earth ; a heavy curse will fall upon morality — 



I 



MONROE TOOK A STEP FORWARD. 39 

oppressed men will despair, and only the Cains of mankind 
walk proudly with impious brow about the ruins of liberty 
on earth. 

Now, allow me briefly to consider how your Foreign Policy 
has grown and enlarged itself. I will only recall to your 
memory the message of President Monroe, when he clearly 
stated that the United States would take up arms to protect 
the American Colonies of Spain, now free republics, should 
the Holy (or rather unholy) Alliance make an attempt either 
to aid Spain to reduce the new American republics to their 
ancient colonial state, or to compel them to adopt political 
systems more conformable to the policy and views of that 
alliance. I entreat you to mark this well, gentlemen. Not 
only the forced introduction of monarchy, but in general the 
interference of foreign powers in the contest, was declared 
sufficient motive for the United States to protect the colonies. 
Let me remind you that this declaration of President Monroe 
was not only approved and confirmed by the people of the 
United States, but that Great Britain it self joined the United 
States, in the declaration of this decision and this policy. 
I further recall to your memory the instructions given in 
1826 to your Envoys to the Congress of Panama, Eichard 
Anderson and John Sergeant, where it was clearly stated that 
the United States would have opposed, with their whole force, 
the interference of the continental powers in that struggle 
for independence. It is true, that this declaration to go even 
to war, to protect the independence of foreign States against 
foreign interference, was restricted to the continent of 
America ; for President Monroe declares in his message that 
the United States can have no concern in European struggles, 
being distant and separated from Europe by the great 
Atlantic Ocean. But I would remark that this indifference 
to European concerns is again a matter, not of principle but 
of temporary exigency — the motives of which have, by the 
lapse of time, entirely disappeared — so much that the balance 
is even turned to the opposite side. 

President Monroe mentions distance as a motive of the 
above-stated distinction. Well, since the prodigious deve- 
lopment of your Pulton's glorious invention, distance is no 



40 EUROPE IS NO LONGER DISTANT. 

longer calculated by miles, but by hours ; and, being so, 
Europe is of course less distant from you than the greater 
part of the American continent. But, let even the word dis- 
tance be taken in a nominal sense. Europe is nearer to 
you than the greatest part of the American continent — yea I 
even nearer than perhaps some parts of your own territory. 
President Monroe's second motive is, that you are separated 
from Europe hy the Atlantic, Now, at the present time, and 
in the present condition of navigation, the Atlantic is no 
separation, but rather a link ; as the means of that commer- 
cial intercourse which brings the interest of Europe home to 
you, connecting you with it by every tie of moral as well as 
material interest. 

There is immense truth in that which the Erench Legation 
in the United States expressed to your government in an 
able note of 27th October past: — ''America is closely con- 
nected with Europe, being only separated from the latter by 
a distance scarcely exceeding eight days' journey, by one of 
the most important of general interests — the interest of com- 
merce. The nations of America and Europe are at this day 
so dependent upon one another, that the effects of any event, 
prosperous or otherwise, happening on one side of the 
Atlantic, are immediately felt on the other side. The residt 
of this community of interests, commercial, political, and 
moral, between Europe and America— -of this frequency and 
rapidity of intercourse between them, is, that it becomes as 
difficult to point out the geographical degree where American 
policy shall terminate, and European policy begin, as it is to 
trace out the line where American commerce begins and 
European commerce terminates. Where may be said to 
begin or terminate the ideas which are in the ascendant in 
Europe and in America ?" 

It is chiefly in New York that I feel induced to urge this, 
because New York is by innumerable ties connected with 
Europe — more connected than several parts of Europe itself. 
It is the agricultural interest of this great country which 
chiefly wants an outlet and a market. Now, it is far more 
to Europe than to the American continent that you have to 
look in that respect. On this account you cannot remain 



CLAY AND WEBSTER PRONOUNCED FOR GREECE. 41 

indifferent to the fate of freedom on the European continent : 
for be sure, gentlemen — and I would say this chiefly to the 
gentlemen of trade — should absolutism gain ground in Europe; 
it will, it must, put every possible obstacle in the way of 
commercial intercourse with republican America : for com- 
mercial intercourse is the most powerful convoyer of 
principles; and be sui'e the victory of absolutism on the 
European continent will in no quarter have more injurious 
national consequences than against your vast agricultural and 
commercial interests. Then why not prevent it, while it is 
still possible to do so with comparatively small sacrifices, 
rather than abide that fatal catastrophe, and have to mourn 
the immense sacrifices it would then cost ? 

Even in political considerations, now-a-days, you have 
stronger motives to feel interested in the fate of Europe than 
in the fate of the Central or Southern parts of America. 
Whatever may happen in the institutions of these parts, you 
are too powerful to see your own institutions affected by it. 
But let Europe become absolutistical (as, unless Hungary be 
restored to its independence, and Italy become free, be sure 
it will) — aud your children will see those words, which your 
national government spoke in 1827, fulfilled on a larger scale 
than they were meant, that ''the absolutism of Europe will not 
be appeased, until every vestige of human freedom has been 
obliterated even here." And oh ! do not rely too fondly 
upon your power. It is great, assuredly. You have not to 
fear any single power on earth. But look to history. 
Mighty empires have vanished. Let not th'e enemies of 
freedom grow too strong. Victorious over Europe, and then 
united, they would be too strong even for you ! And be sure 
they hate you most cordially. They consider you as their 
most dangerous opponent. Absolutism cannot sleep tran- 
quilly, while the republican principle has such a mighty 
representative as your country is. Yes, gentlemen, it was 
the fear of driving the absolutists to fanatical effort, which 
induced your great Statesmen not to extend to Europe the 
principle on which they acted towards the New World, and 
by no means the publicly avowed feeble motives. Every 
manifestation of your public life in those times shows that 



42 FILLMORE PROFESSEES A LIKE PRINCIPLE^ 

I am right to say so. The European nations were, about 
1823, in such a degraded situation, that indeed you must 
have felt anxious not to come into any political contact with 
that pestilential atmosphere, when, as Mr. Clay said in 1818, 
in his speech about the emancipation of South America, 
*' Paris was transferred to St. Petersburg." But scarcely a 
year later, the Greek nation came in its contest to an impor- 
tant crisis, which gave you hope that the spirit of freedom 
was waking again, and at once you abandoned the principle 
of political indifference for Europe. You know, your Clays 
and your Websters spoke, as if really they were speaking for 
my very cause. You know how your citizens acted in behalf 
of that struggle for liberty in a part of Europe which is more 
distant than Hungary; and again when Poland feU, you 
know what spirit pervaded the United States. 

I have shown you how Washington's policy has been 
gradually changed : but one mighty difference I must still 
commemorate. Your population has, since Monroe's time, 
nearly doubled, I believe; or at least has increased by 
millions. And what sort of men are these millions ? Are 
they only native-born Americans? No European emigrants ? 
Many are men, who though citizens of the United States 
are, by the most sacred ties of relationship, attached to the 
fate of Europe. That is a consideration worthy of reflection 
with your wisest men, who will, ere long, agree with me, that in 
your present condition you are at least as much interested in 
the state of Europe, as twenty-eight years ago your fathers were 
in the fate of Central and Southern America. And really 
so it is. The unexampled sympathy for the cause of my country 
which I have met with in the United States proves that it is 
so. Your generous interference with the Turkish captivity of 
the Governor of Hungary, proves that is so. And this pro- 
gressive development in your foreign policy, is, in fact, no 
longer a mere instinctive ebullition of public opinion, which is 
about hereafter to direct your governmental policy ; the 
opinion of the people is already avowed as the policy of the 
government. I have a most decisive authority to rely upon 
in saying so. It is the message of the President of the United 
States. His Excellency, Millard PiUmore, made a commu- 



RENOUNCING INDIFFERENCE, 43 

nication to Congress, a few days ago, and there I read the 
paragraph : — " The deep interest which we feel in the spread 
of liberal principles, and the establishment of free govern- 
ments, and the sympathy with which we witness every struggle 
against oppression, forbid that we should he indifferent to a 
case in which the strong arm of a foreign power is invoked to 
stifle public sentiment and repress the spirit of freedom in 
any country." 

Now, gentlemen, here is the ground which I take for my 
earnest endeavours to benefit the cause of Hungary. I have 
only respectfully to ask : Is a principle which the public 
opinion of the United States so resolutely professes, and 
which the government of the United States, with the full 
sentiment of its responsibility, declares to your Congress to 
be a ruling principle of your national government — is that 
principle meant to be serious ? Indeed, it would be a most 
impertinent outrage towards your great people and your 
national government, to entertain the insulting opinion, that 
what the people of the United States and its national 
government profess in such a solemn diplomatic manner 
could be meant as a mere sporting with the most sacred 
interests of humanity. God forbid that I should think so. 
Therefore, I take the principle of your policy as I find it 
established — and I come in the name of oppressed humanity 
to claim the unavoidable, practical, consequences of your own 
freely chosen policy, which you have avowed to the whole 
world ; to claim the realization of those expectations which 
you, the sovereign people of the United States, have chosen, 
of your own accord, to raise in the bosom of my countrymen 
and of all the oppressed. 

You will excuse me, gentlemen, for having dwelt so long 
upon that principle of non-interference with European 
measures : but I have found it to be the stone of stumbling 
thrown in my way when I spoke of what I humbly request 
from the United States. I have been charged as arrogantly 
attempting to change your existing policy, and since I cannot 
in one speech exhaust the complex and mighty whole of 
my mission, I choose on the present opportunity to develop 
my views about that fundamental principle : and having 



44 IS RUSSIA TO OVERTURN LIBERTY? 

shown, not theoretically, but practically, that it is a mistake 
to think that you had, at any time, such a principle, and 
having shown that if you ever entertained such a policy, you 
have been forced to abandon it — so much, at least, I hope 
I have achieved. My humble requests to your active sym- 
pathy may be still opposed by — I know not what other 
motives ; but the objection, that you must not interfere with 
European concerns — this objection is disposed of, once and 
for ever, I hope. It remains now to inquire, whether, since 
you have professed not to be indifferent to the cause of 
European freedom — the cause of Hungary is such as to have 
just claims to your active and effectual assistance and support. 
It is, gentlemen. 

To prove this I do not now intend to enter into an expla- 
nation of the particulars of our struggle, which I had the 
honour to conduct, as the chosen Chief Magistrate of my 
native land. It is highly gratifying to me to find that the 
cause of Hungary is — excepting some ridiculous misrepre- 
sentations of ill-will — correctly understood here. I will only 
state now one fact, and that is, that our endeavours for inde- 
pendence were crushed by the armed interference of a foreign 
despotic power — the principle of all evil on earth — Eussia. 
And stating this fact, I will not again intrude upon you with 
my own views, but recall to your memory the doctrines 
established by your own statesmen. Firstly — I return to your 
great Washington. He says, in one of his letters to Lafayette, 
" My policies are plain and simple ; I think every nation has 
a right to establish that form of government under which it 
conceives it can live most happy ; and that no government 
ought to interfere with the internal concerns of another." 
Here I take my ground : — upon a principle of Washington — 
diprincipley not a mere temporary policy calculated for the first 
twenty years of your infancy. Eussia has interfered with the 
internal concerns of Hungary, and by doing so has violated 
the policy of the United States, established as a lasting prin- 
ciple by Washington himself. It is a lasting principle. I 
could appeal in my support to the opinion of every statesman 
of the United States, of every party, of every time ; but to 
save time, I pass at once from the first President of the United 



WEBSTER^S DOCTRINE. 45 

States to the last, and recall to your memory this word of the 
present annual message of his Excellency President Fillmore : 
— " Let every people choose for itself, and make and alter its 
political institutions to suit its own condition and convenience." 
I beg leave also to quote the statement of your present Secre- 
tary of State, Mr. Webster, who, in his speech on the Greek 
question, speaks thus : — " The law of nations maintains that 
in extreme cases resistance is lawful, and that one nation has 
no right to interfere in the affairs of another." Well, that 
precisely is the ground upon which we Hungarians stand. 

But I may perhaps meet the objection (I am sorry to say 
I have met it already) — "Well, we own that it has been 
violated by Russia in the case of Hungary, but after all 
what is Hungary to us ? Let every people take care of itself, 
what is that to us ?" So some speak : it is the old doctrine 
of private egotism, " Every one for himself, and God for us 
all." I will answer the objection again by the words of Mr. 
Webster, who, in his speech on the Greek question, having 
professed that the internal sovereignty of every nation is a 
law of nations — thus goes on, '* But it may be asked ' what 
is all that to us ?' The question is easily answered. We are 
one of the nations^ and we as a nation have precisely the same 
interest in international law as a private individual has in 
the laws of his country." The principle which your honour- 
able Secretary of War professes, is a principle of eternal truth. 
No man can disavow it, no political party can disavow it. 
Thus happily I am able to address my prayers, not to a party, 
but to the whole people of the United States, and will go on 
to do so as long as I have no reason to regard one party as 
opposed or indifferent to my country's cause. 

But from certain quarters it may be avowed, '* Well, we 
acknowledge every nation's sovereign right ; we acknowledge 
it to be a law of nations that no foreign power interfere in the 
affairs of another, and we are determined to respect this 
common law of mankind ; but if others do not respect that 
law it is not ours to meddle with them." Let me answer by 
an analysis: — Every nation has the same interest in international 
law as a private individual has in the laws of his conntry. That 
is an acknowledged principle wdth your statesmen. What 



46 POWER CONSTITUTES DUTY. 

then is tlie latter relation ? Does it suffice that an individual 
do not himself violate the law ? Must he not so far as is in 
his power also prevent others from violating the law ? Suppose 
you see that a wicked man about to rob — to murder your 
neighbour, or to burn his house, will you wrap yourself in 
your own virtuous lawfulness, and say, " I myself neither 
rob, nor murder, nor bum; but what others do, is not my 
concern. I am not my brother's keeper. / sympathize with 
him ; but I am not called on to save him from being robbed, 
murdered, or burnt." What honest man of the world would 
answer so? None of you. None of the people of the 
United States, I am sure. That would be the damned maxim 
of the Pharisees of old, who thanked God that they were not 
as others were. Our Saviour was not content himself to avoid 
trading in the hall of the temple, but he drove out those who 
were trading there. 

The duty of enforcing observance to the common law of 
nations has no other limit than the power to fulfil it. Of 
course the republic of St. Marino, or the Prince of Morocco, 
cannot stop the Czar of Eussia in his ambitious annoyance. It 
was ridiculous when the Prince of Modena refused to recognize 
the government of Louis Philippe — but to whom much is 
given, from him will much be expected," says the Lord. 
Eveiy condition has not only its rights, but also its own duties; 
and whatever exists as a power on earth, is in duty a part of 
the executive government of mankind, called to maintain the 
law of nations. Woe, a thousandfold woe to humanity, 
should there be no force on earth to maintain the laws of 
humanity. W^oe to humanity, should those who are as mighty 
as they are free, not feel interested to maintain the laws of 
mankind, because they are rightful laws, — but only in so far as 
some partial money-interests would desire it. Woe to mankind 
if every despot of the world may dare to trample down the 
laws of humanity, and no free nation make these laws 
respected. People of the United States, humanity expects 
that your glorious republic will prove to the world, that 
republics are founded on virtue — it expects to see you the 
guardians of the laws of humanity. 

I will come to the last possible objection. I maybe told. 



FRANCE AIDED AMERICA. 47 

" You are right in your principles, your cause is just, and you 
have our sympathy, but, after all, we cannot go to war for 
your country ; we cannot furnish you armies and fleets ; we 
cannot fight your battle for you." There is the rub ! Who 
can exactly tell what would have been the issue of your own 
struggle for independence (though your country was in a far 
happier geographical position than we, poor Hungarians), 
had France given such an answer to your forefathers in 1778 
and 178], instead of sending to your aid a fleet of thirty- 
eight men-of-war, and auxiliary troops, and 24,000 muskets, 
and a loan of nineteen millions ? And what was far more 
than all this, did it not show that France resolved with aU its 
power to espouse the cause of your independence? But, 
perhaps, I shall be told that France did this, not out of love 
of freedom, but out of hatred against England. Well, let it 
be ; but let me then ask, shall the cause of olden times — 
hatred — be more efficient in the destinies of mankind than 
love of freedom, principles of justice, and the laws of hu- 
manity ? And is America in the days of steam navigation 
more distant from Europe to-day, than France was from 
America seventy-three years ago ? However, I most solemnly 
declare that it is not my intention to rely literally upon this 
example. It is not my wish to entangle the United States 
in war, or to engage your great people to send out armies and 
fleets to raise up and restore Hungary. Not at all, gen- 
tlemen \ I most solemnly declare that I have never entertained 
such expectations or such hopes ; and here I come to the 
practical point. 

The principle of evil in Europe is the enervating spirit of 
Eussian absolutism. Upon this rests the daring boldness of 
every petty tyrant to trample upon oppressed nations, and to 
crush liberty. To this Moloch of ambition has my native 
land fallen a victim. It is with this that Montelembert 
threatens the French republicans. It was Eussian intervention 
in Hungary which governed French intervention in Eome, 
and gave German tyrants hardihood to crush all the endeavours 
for freedom and unity in Germany. The despots of the 
European continent are leagued against the freedom of the 
world. That is A matter of fact. The second matter of 



48 POLICY NEEDS PREDISCUSSION. 

fact is that the European continent is on the eve of a new 
revolution. It is not necessary to be initiated in the secret 
preparations of the European democracy to be aware of that 
approaching contingency. It is pointed out by the French 
constitution itself, prescribing a new Presidential election for 
the next spring. Now, suppose that the ambition of Louis 
Napoleon, encouraged by Eussian secret aid, awaits this time 
{wJiicli I scarcely believe), and suppose that there should be a 
peaceful solution ; such as would content the friends of the 
Eepublic in Erance ; of course the first act of the new Erench 
President must be, at least, to recall the Erench troops from 
Eome. Nobody can doubt that a revolution in Italy will 
follow. Or if there is no peaceful solution in Erance, but a 
revolution, then every man knows that whenever the heart 
of Erance boils up, the pulsation is felt throughout Europe, 
and oppressed nations once more rise, and Eussia again 
interferes. 

Now I humbly ask, with the view of these circumstances 
before our eyes, can it be convenient to such a great power 
as this glorious Eepublic, to await the very outbreak, and not 
until then to discuss and decide on your foreign policy? 
There may come, as under the last President, at a late hour, 
agents to see how matters stand in Hungary. Eussian 
interference and treason achieved what the sacrilegious 
Hapsburgh dynasty failed to achieve. You know the old words, 
" While Eome debated, Saguntum fell." So I respectfully 
press upon you my first entreaty : it is, that your people 
will in good time express to your central government what 
course of foreign policy it wishes to be pursued in the case of 
the approaching events I have mentioned. And I most con- 
fidently hope that there is only one course possible, consist- 
ently with the above recorded principles. If you acknowledge 
that the right of every nation to alter its institutions and 
government is a law of nations — if you acknowledge the 
interference of foreign powers in that sovereign right to be a 
violation of the law of nations, as you really do — if you are 
forbidden to remain indifferent to this violation of international 
law (as your President openly professes that you are) — then 
there is no other course possible than neither to interfere in 



HIS FIRST REQUEST. 49 

that sovereign right of nations, nor to allow any other powers 
whatever to interfere. 

But you will perhaps object to me, *' That amounts to 
going to war." I answer ; no — that amounts to preventing 
war. What is wanted to that effect ? It is wanted, that, 
being aware of the precarious condition of Europe, your 
national government should, as soon as possible, send in- 
structions to your Minister at London, to declare to the 
English government that the United States, acknowledging 
the sovereign right of every nation to dispose of its own 
domestic concerns, have resolved not to interfere, but also not 
to let any foreign power whatever interfere with this sove- 
reign right in order to repress the spirit of freedom in any 
country. Consequently, to invite the Cabinet of St. James's 
into this policy, and declare that the United States are 
resolved to act conjointly with England in that decision, in 
the approaching crisis of the European continent. Such is 
my FIRST humble request. If the citizens of the United 
States, instead of honouring me with the offers of their hospi- 
tality, would be pleased to pass convenient resolutions, and 
to ratify them to their national government — if the press 
would hasten to give its aid, and in consequence the national 
government instructed its Minister in England accordingly, 
and by communication to the Congress, as it is w^ont, give 
publicity to this step, I am entirely sure that you would find 
the people of Great Britain heartily joining this direction of 
policy. No power could feel peculiarly offended by it; no 
existing relation would be broken or injured : and still any 
future interference of Russia against the restoration of Hun- 
gary to that independence which was formally declared in 
1849 would be prevented, Russian arrogance and preponder- 
ance would be checked, and the oppressed nations of Eui'ope 
soon become free. 

There may be some over-anxious men, who perhaps would 
say, "But if such a declaration of your government were not 
respected, and Russia still did interfere, then you would be 
obliged by this previous declaration, to go to w^ar ; and you 
don't desire to have a war." That objection seems to me as 
if somebody were to say, " If the vault of heaven breaks 

3 



50 UNJUST BLOCKADES. 

down, what shall we do ? " My answer is, *' But it will not 
break down." Even so I answer. But your declaration 
will be respected — Eussia will not interfere — you will have 
no occasion for war — you will have prevented war. Be sure 
Eussia w^ould twice, thrice consider, before provoking against 
itself, besides the roused judgment of nations — (to say no- 
thing of the legions of republican France) — the English 
''Lion" and the star-surrounded "Eagle" of America. 
Eemember that you, in conjunction with England, once be- 
fore declared that you would not permit European absolutism 
to interfere wdth the formerly Spanish colonies of America. 
Did this declaration bring you to a war? quite the contrary; 
it prevented Avar. So it would be in our case also. Let me 
therefore most humbly entreat you, people of the United 
States, to give such practical direction to your generous 
sympathy for Hungary, as to arrange meetings and pass such 
resolutions, in every possible place of this Union, as I took 
the liberty to mention above. 

The SECOND measure which I beg leave to mention, has 
reference to commercial interest. In later times a doctrine 
has stolen into the code of international law, which is as 
contrary to the commercial interests of nations as to their 
independence. The pettiest despot of the world is permitted 
to exclude your commerce from whatever port he pleases. 
He has only to arrange a blockade, and your commerce is 
shut out; or, if captured Yenice, bleeding Lombardy, or 
my prostrate but resolute Hungary, rises to shake off the 
Austrian tyrant's yoke (as surely they will), that tyrant 
believes he has the right, from that very moment, to exclude 
your commerce from the uprisen nation. Now, this is an 
absurdity — a tyrannical invention of tyrants violating your 
interest — your independence. The United States have not 
always regarded things from the despotic point of view. 
I find, in a note of Mr. Everett, Minister of the United 
States in Spain, dated *' Madrid, Jan. 20, 1826," these 
words : — '' In the war between Spain and the Spanish 
American colonies, the United States have freely granted to 
both parties the hospitality of their ports and territory, and 
have allowed the agents of both to procure within their juris- 



SECOND REQUEST. 51 

diction, in the way of lawful trade, any supplies which suited 
their convenience." Now, gentlemen, this is the principle 
which humanity expects, for your own and for mankind's 
benefit, to see maintained by you, and not yonder fatal 
course, which permits tyrants to draw from your country 
every facility for the oppression of their nations, but forbids 
nations to buy the means of defence. That was not the 
principle of your Washington. When he speaks of harmony, 
of friendly intercourse, and of peace, he always takes care to 
apply his ideas to nations, and not to govermnenU — still less 
to tyrants who subdue nations by foreign arms. The sacred 
word Nation, with all its natural rights, should not be 
blotted out, at least from your political dictionary \ and yet 
I am sorry to see that the word nation is often replaced by 
the word Government. Gentlemen, I humbly wish that the 
public opinion of the people of the United States, conscious 
of its own rights, should loudly and resolutely declare that 
the people of the United States will continue its commercial 
intercourse with any or every nation, be it in revolution 
against its oppressors or be it not ; and that the people of 
the United States expect confidently, that its government 
will provide for the protection of your trade. I feel assured, 
that your national government, seeing public opinion so 
pronounced, will judge it convenient to augment your naval 
forces in the Mediterranean ; and to look for some such 
station for it as would not force the navy of republican 
America to make disavowals inconsistent with republican 
principles or republican dignity, only because King So-and- 
So, be he even the cursed King of Naples, grants the favour 
of an anchoring place for the naval forces of your republic. 
I believe your illustrious country should everywhere freely 
unfurl the star-spangled banner of liberty, with all its con- 
genial principles, and not make itself in any respect de- 
pendent on the glorious smiles of the Kings Eombaste 
Compagne. 

The THIRD object of my wishes, gentlemen, is the recog- 
nition of the independence of Hungary when the critical 
moment amves. Your own declaration of independence 
proclaims the right of every nation to assume among the 



52 RECOGNITION OF HUNGARY JUST. 

powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which 
"the laws of nature and nature's God" entitle them. The 
political existence of your glorious republic is founded upon 
this principle, upon this right. Our nation stands upon the 
same ground : there is a striking resemblance between your 
cause and that of my country. On the 4th July, 1776, 
John Adams spoke thus in your Congress, '' Sink or swim, 
live or die, survive or perish, I am for this declaration." In 
the beginning we did not go so far as separation from the 
Austrian Crown, but " there is a divinity which shapes our 
ends." These noble words were present to my mind on the 
14th April, 1849, when I moved the forfeiture of the Crown 
by the Hapsburgs in the National Assembly of Hungary. 
Our condition was the same ; and if there be any difference, 
I venture to say it is in favour of us. Your country, before 
this declaration, was not a self-consisting independent State. 
Hungary was. Through the lapse of a thousand years, 
through every vicissitude of this long period, while nations 
vanished and empires fell, the self-consisting independence of 
Hungary was never disputed, but was recognized by all powers 
of the earth, sanctioned by treaties made with the Hapsburg 
dynasty, at the era when this dynasty, by the freewill of my 
nation, which acted as one of two contracting parties, was 
invested with the kingly crown of Hungary. Even more, 
this independence of the kingdom was acknowledged to 
make a part of the international law of Europe, and was 
guaranteed not only by foreign European governments, such 
as Great Britain, but also by several of those once constitu- 
tional states which belonged formerly to the German, and 
after its dissolution, to the Austrian empire. 

This independent condition of Hungary is clearly defined 
in one of our fundamental laws of 1791, in these words : — 
" Hungary is a free and independent kingdom, having its own 
self-consistent existence and constitution, and not subject* 
to any other nation or country in the world." This therefore 
was our ancient right. We were not dependent on, nor a part 
of, the Austrian empire, as your country was dependent on 

* In the original Latin, ohnoxium, "not entangled, or compro- 
mised, with any other." 



HUNGARY NO PART OF AUSTRIA. 53 

England, It was clearly defined that we were to Austria 
nothing but good neighbourhood, and the only tie between us 
and Austria was, that we elected to be our kings the same 
dynasty which were also the sovereigns of Austria, and occu- 
pied the same line of hereditary succession as our kings ; but 
by accepting this, our forefathers, with the consent of the King, 
again declared, that though Hungaiy accepts the dynasty as 
our hereditary kings, all the other franchises, rights, and laws 
of the nation shall remain in full power and intact ; and our 
countiy shall not be governed like the other dominions of 
that dynasty, but according to our constitutionally established 
authorities. We could not belong to " the Austrian Empire," 
for that empire did not then as yet exist, while Hungary had 
already existed as a substantive kingdom for many centuries, 
and for some two hundred and eighty years under the govern- 
ment of that Hapsburgian dynasty. The Austrian Empire, 
as you know, was established only in 1806, when the Ehenish 
confederacy of Napoleon struck the deathblow of the German 
empire, of which Francis II of Austria, was not hereditary 
but elected Emperor. That Hungary had belonged to the 
German empire is a thing which no man in the world ever 
imagined yet. It is only now that the Hapsburgian tyrant 
professes an intention to melt Hungary into the German 
Confederation; but you know this intention to be in so 
striking opposition to the European public law, that England 
and Prance solemnly protested against it, so that it is not 
carried out even to-day. The German empire having died, 
its late Emperor Francis, also King of Hungary, chose to 
entitle himself Austrian Emperor, in 1806 ; but even in that 
fundamental charter he solemnly declared that Hungary and 
its annexed provinces ai^e not intended to make, and toill not 
make^ a 'part of the Austrian Empire. Subsequently he entered 
with this empire into the German Confederation, but Hungary, 
as well as Lombardy and Venice, not making part of the 
Austrian empire, still remained separated, and were not received 
into the confederacy. 

The laws which we succeeded to carry in 1848, of course 
altered nothing in that old chartered condition of Hungary. 
We transformed the peasantry into freeholders, and abolished 



o4 THE RESPONSIBLE MINISTRY. 

feudal incumbrances. We replaced tlie political privileges 
of aristocracy by the common liberty of the whole people ; 
gave to the people at large representation in the legislature ; 
transformed our municipalities into democratic corporations ; 
introduced equality before the law for the whole people in rights 
and duties, and abolished the immunity of taxation which 
had been enjoyed by the class called Nolle ; secured equal 
religious liberty to all, secured liberty of the press and of 
association, provided for public gratuitous instruction of the 
whole people of every confession and of whatever tongue. In 
all this we did no wrong. All these were, as you see, internal 
reforms which did not at all interfere with our allegiance to 
the king and were carried lawfully in peaceful legislation 
icith the king's own smiction. Besides this there was one other 
thing which was carried. We were formerly governed by a 
Board of Council, which had the express duty to govern 
according to sure laws, and be responsible for doing so ; but 
we found by long experience that a Corporation cannot really 
be responsible ; and that this was the reason why the abso- 
lutist tendency of the dynasty succeeded in encroaching upon 
our liberty. So we replaced the Board of Council by Ministers ; 
the empty responsibility of a Board by the individual re- 
sponsibility of men — and the king consented to it. I myself 
was named by him Minister of the Treasury. That is all. 
But precisely here was the rub. The dynasty could not bear 
the idea that we would not give to its ambition the life sweat 
of our people ; it was not contented with the 1,500,000 dollars 
which were generously appropriated to it yearly. It dreaded 
that it would be disabled in future from using our brave 
army, against our will, to crush the spirit of freedom in the 
world. Therefore it resorted to the most outrageous con- 
spiracy, and attacked us by arms, and upon receiving a false 
report of a great victory this young usurper issued a pro- 
clamation declaring that Hungary shall not more exist — 
that its independence, its constitution, its very existence is 
abolished, and it shall be absorbed, like a farm or fold, into 
the Austrian Empire. To all this Hungary answered, " Thou 
shaltnot exist, tyrant, but we will; " and we banished him, 



HIS THIRD REQUEST. 55 

and issued the declaration of the deposition of his dynasty, 
and of our separate independence. 

So you see, gentlemen, that there is a veiy great difference 
between your declaration and ours — it is in our favour. 
There is another difference ; you declared your independence 
of the English crown when it was yet very doubtful whether 
you would be successful. We declared our independence of 
the Austrian crown only after we, in legitimate defence, 
were already victorious; when we had actually beaten the 
pretender, and had thus already proved that we had strength 
to become an independent power. One thing more : our 
declaration of independence was not only overwhelmingly 
voted in our Congress, but every county, every municipality, 
solemnly declared its consent and adherence to it ; so it be- 
came sanctioned, not by mere representatives, but by the 
whole nation positively, and by the fundamental institutions 
of Hungary. And so it still remains. Nothing has since 
happened on the part of the nation contrary to this declara- 
tion. One thing only happened, — a foreign power, Eussia, 
came with its armed bondsmen, and, aided by treason, has 
overthrown us for awhile. Now, I put the question before 
God and humanity to you, free sovereign people of America, 
can this violation of international law abolish the legitimate 
character of our declaration of independence ? If not, then 
here I take my ground, because I am in this very manifesto 
entrusted with the charge of Governor of my fatherland. I 
have sworn, before God and my nation, to endeavour to 
maintain and secure this act of independence. And so may 
God the Almighty help me as I will — -I will, until my nation 
is again in the condition to dispose of its government, whicli 
I confidently trust,-— yea, more, I know, — will be republican. 
And then I retire to the humble condition of my former 
private life, equalling, in one thing at least, your Washington, 
not in merits, but in honesty. That is the only ambition 
of my life. Amen. Here then is my third humble 
wish : that the people of the United States would, by all 
constitutional means of its wonted public life, declare 
that, acknowledging the legitimacy of our independence, 
it is anxious to greet Hungary amongst the independent 



56 PRIVATE AIDS VALUABLE. 

powers of the earth, and invites the government of the 
United States to recognize this independence at the earliest 
convenient time. That is all. Let me see the principle 
announced : the rest may well be left to the wisdom of your 
government, with some confidence in my own respectful 
discretion also. 

So much for the people of the United States, in its public 
and political capacity. Eut if that sympathy which I have 
the honour to meet with is really intended to become bene- 
ficial, there is one humble wish more which I entertain : it is 
a respectful appeal to generous feeling. Gentlemen, I would 
rather starve than rely, for myself and family, on foreign aid ; 
but for my country's Freedom, I would not be ashamed to 
go begging from door to door. I have taken the advice of 
some kind friends whether it be lawful to express such a 
humble request, for I feel it an honourable duty neither to 
offend nor to evade your laws. I am told it is lawful. 
There are two means to see this my humble wish accom- 
plished. The first is, by spontaneous subscription ; the 
second is, by a loan. The latter may require private con- 
sultation in a narrower circle. As to subscriptions, the 
idea was brought home to my mind by a plain but very 
generous letter, which I had the honour to receive, and 
which I beg to read. It is as follows : — 

ClN"CINNATI, O., Nov. 14, 1851. 
M. Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary : — Sir — I have au- 
thorized the office of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, 
in New York, to honour your draft on me for one thousand dollars. 
Respectfully yours, W. SMEAD. 

I beg leave here publicly to return my most humble thanks 
to the gentleman, for his ample aid, and the delicate manner 
in which he offered it ; and it came to my mind, that where 
one individual is ready to make such sacrifices to my 
country's cause, there may perhaps be many who would give 
their small share to it, if they were only apprized that it 
will be thankfully accepted, however small it may be. And 
it came to my mind, that millions of drops make an ocean, 
and the United States number many millions of inhabitants. 



BANQUET OF THE PRESS. 57 

all warmly attached to liberty. A million dollars, paid 
singly, would be to m.e far more precious than paid in one 
draft ; for it would practically show the sympathy of the 
people at large. Would I were so happy as your Washington 
was, when he also, for your glorious country's sake, in the 
hours of your need, called to Prance for money. 

Sir, I have done. I came to your shores an exile : you 
have poured upon me the triumph of a welcome such as the 
world has never yet seen. And why ? Because you took 
me for the representative of that principle of liberty which 
God has destined to become the common benefit of all 
humanity. It is glorious to see a free and mighty people so 
greet the principle of freedom, in the person of one who is 
persecuted and helpless. Be blessed for it ! Your generous 
deed will be recorded ; and as millions of Europe's oppressed 
nations will, even now, raise their thanksgiving to God for this 
ray of hope, which by this act you have thrown on the dark 
night of their fate ; even so, through all posterity, oppressed 
men will look to your memory as to a token of God that 
there is a hope for freedom on earth, since there is a people 
like you to feel its worth and to support its cause. 



^§g 



Till.— ON NATIONALITIES. 

\_8^eech at the Banquet of the Press, New York.'] 

•At this Banquet Mr. Bryant, the poet, presided, and 
numerous speeches were delivered, among which was one by 
the well-known author, Mr. Bancroft, lately ambassador 
in England. This gentleman closed by saying, that when 
the illustrious Governor of Hungary uttered the solemn 
truth, that Europe had no hope but in republican institu- 
tions — that was a renunciation to the world that the Austrian 
monarchy was sick and dying, and that vitality remained in 
the people alone. And as he uttered that truth, not his 
own race only — not the Magyars only, but every nationality 
of Hungary, all the fifteen or twenty millions within its 
limits — all cried out that he was the representative of their 



58 MR. 

convictions — that he was the man of their affections, that he 
was the utterer of truths on which they relied. 

Our guest crosses the Atlantic, and he is received ; and 
what is the great fact that constitutes his reception ? He 
finds there the military arranged to do him honour. And 
among those who, on that day, bore arms, were men of 
every tongue that is spoken between the steppes of Tartary, 
eastward, towards the Pacific ocean. The great truth that 
was pronounced on that occasional do not fear to utter it 
— was, let who will cavil, la solidarite des peuples — the sub- 
lime truth that all men are brothers — that all nations, too, 
are brethren, and are responsible for one another. 

The chairman also spoke eloquently in introducing the 
third toast, which was briefly, Louis Kossuth. As Mr. 
Eryant pronounced his name, Kossuth rose, and was received 
with multifarious demonstrations of enthusiasm. At last he 
proceeded as follows : — 

Gentlemen. — I know that in your hands the Inde- 
pendent Eepublican Press is a weapon to defend truth and 
justice, a torch lit at the fire of immortality, a spark of 
which glisters in every man's soul and proves its divine 
origin : and as the cause of my country is just and true, and 
wants nothing but light to secure support from every friend 
of freedom, every noble-minded man, — for this reason I 
address you with joy, gentlemen. 

Though it is sorrowful to see how Austrian intrigues, dis- 
torting plain open history into a tissue of falsehood, find 
their way even into the American press, I am proud and 
happy that the immense majority of you, conscious of your 
noble vocation and instinct with the generosity of freedom, 
protect our sacred rights against the dark plots of tyranny. 
Your Independent Press has likewise proved that its free- 
dom is the most efficient protection even against calumny ; a 
far better one than restrictive prevention, which condemns 
the human intellect to eternal minority. 

I address you, gentlemen, with the greater joy, because 
through you I have the invaluable benefit of reaching the 
whole of your great, glorious, and free people. 

Eighty years ago the immortal Franklin's own press was 



TRUE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 59 

almost the only one in the colonies : now you have above 
three thousand newspapers, with a circulation of five millions 
of copies. I am told that the journals of New York State 
alone exceed in number those of all the rest of the world 
outside of your great Union, and that the circulation of the 
newspapers of this city alone nearly reaches that of the 
whole empire of Great Britain ! But, what is more, — I 
boldly declare that, except in the United States, there is 
scarcely anywhere a practical freedom of the press. Indeed, 
concerning Norway I am not quite aware. But throughout 
the European continent you know how the press is fettered. 
In Prance, under a nominally republican government, all the 
fruits of victorious revolutions are nipt by the blasting grip 
of centralized power, — legislative and administrative omnipo- 
tence. The independence of the Trench press is crushed ; 
the government cannot bear the free word of public opinion ; 
and in a republic, the shout " Yive la republique" is become 
almost a crime. This is a mournful sight, but is an 
efficient warning against centralization. It is chiefly Great 
Britain which boasts of a free press ; and assuredly in one 
sense the freedom is almost unlimited : for I saw placards, 
with the printer's name, stating that Queen Victoria is no 
lawful queen, and aU those who rule ought to be hanged ; 
but men only laughed at the foolish extravagance. Never- 
theless, I hope the generous people of Great Britain will not 
be offended when I say that their press is not practically free. 
Its freedom is not real, for it is not a common benefit to all : 
it is but a particular benefit, that is, a privilege. Taxation 
there forbids the use of newspapers to the poor. Absence 
of taxation enables your journals to be published at one 
tenth, or even one twentieth, of the English price : hence 
several of your daily papers reach from thirty to sixty 
thousand readers, while in England one paper alone is on 
this scale, — the London 'Times,' which circulates thirty 
thousand, perhaps. Such being the condition of your press, 
in addressing you I address a whole people ; nor only so, but 
a whole intelligent people. 

The wide diffusion of intelligence among you is in fact 
proved hy the immense circulation of your journals. It is 



60 POPULAR EDUCATION, 

not solely the cheap price which renders yonr press a common 
benefit, and not a mere privilege to the richer ; but it is the 
universality of public instruction. It is glorious to know 
that in this flourishing young city alone nearly a hundred 
thousand children receive public education annually. Do 
you know, gentlemen, w^hat I consider to be your most 
glorious monument ? if it be, as I have read, that, when your 
engineers draw geometrical lines to guide your wandering 
squatters in the solitudes where virgin Nature adores her 
Lord, they place on every thirty-sixth square of the district 
marked out to be a township, a modest wooden pole with 
the glorious mark, Populau Education. This is your 
proudest monument. 

In my opinion, not your geographical situation, not your 
material power, not the bold enterprizing spirit of your 
people, is the chief guarantee of their future ; but the uni- 
versality of education : for a whole people, once become 
intelligent, never can consent not to be free. You will 
always be willing to be free, and you are great and powerful 
enough to be as good as your wiU. 

My humble prayers in my country's cause I address to 
your entire nation: but you, gentlemen, are the engineers 
through whom my cause must reach them. It is therefore 
highly gratifying to me to see, not isolated men, but the 
povverful complex of the great word PuESS, granting me this 
important manifestation of generous sentiment. I beg you 
to consider, that whatever and wherever I speak, is always 
spoken to the press ; and for all the imperfections of my 
language let me plead for your indulgence, as one of your 
professional colleagues : for indeed such I have been. 

Yes, gentlemen ; I commenced my public career as a 
journalist. You, under your happy institutions, know not 
the torment of writing with hands fettered by an Austrian 
censor. To sit at the desk, with a heart full of the necessity 
of the moment, a conscience stirred with righteous feeling, 
a mind animated with convictions and principles, and a 
whole soul warmed by a patriot's fire ; — to see before your 
eyes the scissors of the censor ready to lop your ideas, maim 
your arguments, murder your thoughts, render vain your 



MISERY OF THE CENSORSHIP. 61 

laborious days and sleepless nights ; — ^to know that the 
people will judge you, not by what you have felt, thought, 
written, but by what the censor will let you say ; — to perceive 
that the prohibition has no rule or limit but the arbitrary 
pleasure of a man who is doomed by profession to be a coward 
and a fool ; — oh ! his little scissors suspended over one are 
a worse misery than the sword of Damocles. Oh ! to go 
on, day by day, in such a work of Sisyphus, believe me, is 
no small sacrifice of any intelligent man to fatherland and 
humanity. And this is the present condition of the press, 
not in Hungary only, but in all countries cursed by Austrian 
rule. Indeed, our recent reforms gave freedom of the press, 
not to my fatherland only, but indirectly to Vienna, Prague, 
Lemberg ; in a word, to the whole empire of Austria : and 
this must ensure your sympathy to us. Contrariwise, the 
interference of Eussia has crushed the press on the whole 
European continent. Freedom of the press is incompatible 
with the preponderance of Eussia, and with the very existence 
of the Austrian dynasty, the sworn enemy of every liberal 
thought. This must engage your generous support to sweep 
away those tyrants, and to raise liberty where now foul 
oppression rules. 

Some time back there appeared in certain New York 
papers systematic falsehoods, which went so far as to state 
that we, the Hungarians, had struggled for oppression, while 
it was the Austrian dynasty which stood up for liberty ! 
Such effrontery astonishes even one who has seen Eussian 
treacheries. We may be misrepresented, scorned, jeered at, 
censured. Our martyrs, whose blood cries for revenge, may 
be laughed at as fools. Heroes, who will command the 
veneration of history, may be called Don Quixotes. But 
that among freemen and professed republicans even the 
honour of an unfortunate nation, in its most mournful suffer- 
ing, should not be sacred, — that is indeed a sorrowful page 
in human history. 

You cannot expect me to enter into a special refutation of 
this compound of calumnies. I may reserve it for my pen. 
But inasmuch as the basis of all the calumnies lies in general 
ignorance concerning the relation, of the Magyars to other 



62 WHAT MAKES A NATION? 

races of Hungary, permit me to speak on the question of 
Nationalities, a false theory of which plays so mischievous 
a part in the destinies of Europe. No word has been more 
misrepresented than the word Nationality, which is become 
in the hands of absolutism a dangerous instrument against 
liberty. 

Let me ask you, gentlemen : are you, the people of the 
United States, a nation, or not? Have you a national 
government, or not ? You answer, yes : and yet you are not 
all of one blood, nor of one language. Millions of you 
speak English ; others French, German, Italian, Spanish, 
Danish, and even several Indian dialects : yet you are a 
nation. Neither youi' central government, nor those of 
separate states, nor your municipalities, legislate or ad- 
minister in every language spoken among you ; yet you have 
a national government. 

Now, suppose many of you were stmck with the curse of 
Babel, and exclaimed, " This union is an oppression ! our 
laws, our institutions, our state and city governments, are 
an oppression ! What is union to us ? w^hat are rights ? 
what avail laws ? what is freedom ? what is geography ? what 
is community of interests to us ? They are all nothing ; 
LANGUAGE is everything. Let us divide the Union, divide 
the states, divide the very cities, divide the whole territory, 
according to languages. Let the people of every language 
become a separate state : for every nation has a right to 
national life, and to us the language, and nothing else, is 
the nationality. Unless the state is founded upon language, 
its organization is tyranny." 

What then would become of your great Union ? W^hat of 
your constitution, the glorious legacy of your greatest man ? 
What of those immortal stars on mankind's moral sky ? 
What would become of your country itself, whence the 
spirit of freedom soars into light, and rising hope irradiates 
the future of humanity ? What would become of this grand, 
mighty complex of your republic, should her integrity ever 
be rent by the fanatics of language ? Where now she walks 
among the rising temples of liberty and happiness, she soon 
would tread, upon ruins, and mourn over human hopes. 



COMMON SYMPATHIES. 63 

But happy art tliou, free nation of America, founded on the 
only solid basis, — liberty ! a principle steady as the world, 
eternal as the truth, universal for every climate, for every 
time, like Providence. Tyrants are not in the midst of 
you to throw the apple of discord and raise hatred in this 
national family, — hatred of races, that curse of humanity, 
that venomous ally of despotism. Glorious it is to see the 
oppressed of diverse countries, — diverse in language, history, 
habits, — wandering to these shores, and becoming members 
of this great nation, regenerated by the principle of common 
liberty. 

If language alone makes a nation, then there is no great 
nation on earth : for there is no country whose population is 
counted by millions, but speaks more than one language. 
No ! It is not language only. Community of interests, of 
rights, of duties, of history, but chiefly community of insti- 
tutions ; by which a population, varying perhaps in tongue 
and race, is bound together through daily intercourse in the 
towns, which are the centres and home of commerce and 
industry: — besides these, the very mountain-ranges, the 
system of rivers and streams, — the soil, the dust of which is 
mingled with the mortal remains of those ancestors who bled 
on the same field, for the same interests, the common in- 
heritance of glory and of woe, the community of laws and 
institutions, common freedom or common oppression: — all 
this enters into the complex idea of Nationality. 

That this is instinctively felt by the common sense of the 
people, nowhere is more manifestly shown than at this very 
moment in my native land. Hungary was declared by Francis - 
Joseph of Austria no more to exist as a Nation, no more as a 
State. It was and is put under martial law. Strangers, 
aliens to our laws and history as well as to our tongue, rule 
now, where our fathers lived and our brothers bled. To be 
a Hungarian is become almost a crime in our own native 
land. Well : to justify before the world the extinction of 
Hungaiy, the partition of its territory, and the reincorporating 
of the dissected limbs into the common body of servitude, the 
treacherous dynasty was anxious to show that the Hungarians 
are in a minority in their own land. They hoped that inti- 



61 RECENT CENSUS OF HUNGARY. 

midation and terrorism would induce even the very Magyars 
to disavow their language and birth. They ordered a census 
of races to be made. They performed it with the iron rule of 
martial law; and dealt so arbitrarily that thousands of 
women and men, who professed to be Magyars, who professed 
not to know any other language than the Magyar, were, not- 
withstanding all their protestations, put down as Sclaves, Serbs, 
Germans, or Wallachians, because their names had not quite a 
Hungarian sound. And still what was the issue of this malig- 
nant plot ? That of the twelve millions of inhabitants of Hun- 
gary proper, the Magyars turned out to be more than eight 
millions, some two millions more than we know the case really 
is. The people instinctively felt that the tyrant had the design 
through the pretext of language to destroy the existence of the 
complex nation, and it met the. tyrannic plot as if it answered, 
'-We are, and must be, a nation; and if the tyrant takes lan- 
guage only for the mark of nationality, then we are all 
Magyars." And mark well, gentlemen ! this happened, not 
under my governorship, but under the rule of Austrian 
martial law. The Cabinet of Yienna became furious ; it 
thought of a new census, but prudent men told them that a 
new census would give the whole twelve millions as Magyars ; 
thus no new census was taken. 

But on the European continent there unhappily has grown 
up a school, which bound the idea of nationality to the idea 
of language only, and joined political pretensions to it. 
There are some who advocate the theory that existing States 
must cease, and the territories of the world be divided anew 
by languages and nations, separated by tongues. 

You are aware that this idea, if it were not impracticable, 
would be a curse to humanity — a deathblow to civilization 
and progress, and throw back mankind by centuries. It 
would be an eternal source of strife and war: for there is a 
holy, almost religious tie, by which man's heart is bound to 
his home, and no man would ever consent to abandon his 
native land only because his neighbours speak another lan- 
guage than himself. His heart claims that sacred spot where 
the ashes of his fathers lie — where his own cradle stood — 
where he dreamed the happy dreams of youth, and where 



FANATICS OF LANGUAGE, 65 

nature itself bears a mark of his manhood's toil. The idea 
were worse than the old migration of nations was. Nothing 
but despotism would rise out of such a fanatical strife of all 
mankind. 

And really it is very curious. Nobody of the advocates of 
this mischievous theory is willing to yield to it for himself 
— but others he desires to yield to it. Every Frenchman 
becomes furious when his Alsace is claimed to Germany by 
the right of language — or the borders of his Pyrenees to Spain 
— but there are some amongst the very men who feel revolted 
at this idea, who claim of Germany that it should yield up 
large territory because one part of the inhabitants speak a 
different tongue, and would claim from Hungary to divide its 
territory, which God himself has limited by its range of 
mountains and the system of streams, as also by all the links 
of a community of more than a thousand years ; to cut off 
our right hand, Transjdvania, and to give it up to the neigh- 
bouring Wallachia, to cut out like Shylock one pound of our 
very breast — the Banat — and the rich country between the 
Danube and Theiss — to augment by it Turkish Serbia and so 
forth. It is the new ambition of conquest, but an easy con- 
quest, not by arms, but by language. 

So much I know, at least, that this absurd idea cannot, 
and will not, be advocated by any man here in the United 
States ; which did not open its hospitable shores to hiimanity, 
and greet the flocking millions of emigrants with the right 
of a citizen, in order that the Union may be cut to pieces, 
and even your single States divided into new-framed, inde- 
pendent countries according to languages. 

And do you know, gentlemen, whence this absurd theory 
sprang up on the European Continent ? It was the idea of 
Panslavismus — that is, the idea that the mighty stock of 
Sclavonic races is called to rule the world, as once the Eo- 
man did. It was a Eussian plot — it was a dark design to 
make out of national feelings a tool to Eussian preponderance 
over the world. 

Perhaps you are not aware of the liistorical origin of this 
plot. It was after that most immoral act of tyranny, the 
third division of Poland, that the chance of fate brought 



66 PANSLAVISMUS. 

the Prince Czartorinsky, to the Court of Catherine of Eussia. 
He subsequently became minister of Alexander the Czar. 
It was in this quality that, with the noble aim to benefit his 
fallen fatherland, he claimed from the young Czar the restora- 
tion of Poland, suggesting for equivalent the idea of Eussian 
preponderance over all nations of the old Sclavonic race. 
I believe his intention was sincere ; I believe he did not mean 
to overlook those natural borders, which, besides the affinity 
of language, God himself has drawn between the nations. 
But he forgot that he might be no longer able to master the 
spirits which he would raise, and that an undesired fanaticism 
might force sundry fantastical shapes into his framework, 
by which the frame itself must burst in pieces. He forgot 
that Eussian preponderance cannot be propitious to liberty : 
he forgot that it cannot be favourable even to the development 
of the Sclave nationality, because Sclavonic nations would by 
this idea be degraded into mere Eussians, that is, absorbed 
by despotism. 

Eussia got hold of the fanciful idea very readily ? May 
be that young Alexander had in the first moment noble 
inclinations ; the warm heart of youth is susceptible to noble 
instincts. It is not common in history to find young princes so 
premature in tyranny as Francis- Joseph of Austria. But a few 
years of power were sufficient to extinguish eveiy spark of 
noble sentiment, if there was one, in Alexander's heart. 
Upon the throne of the Eomanoffs the man is soon absorbed 
by the Autocrat. The traditional policy of St. Petersburg 
is not an atmosphere in which the plant of regeneration can 
grow, and the fanciful idea became soon a weapon of oppres- 
sion and of Eussian preponderance — Eussia availed herself of 
the idea of Panslavism to break Turkey down, and to make 
an obedient satellite out of Austria. Turkey still withstands 
her, but Austria has fallen into the snare. Eussia sent out 
its agents, its moneys, its venomous secret diplomacy ; it 
whispered to the Sclave nations about hatred against foreign 
dominion — about independence of religion connected with 
nationality under its own supremacy ; but chiefly it spoke to 
them of Panslavism under the protectorate of the Czar. The 
millions of his large empire also, all oppressed — all in servi- 



LATIN IN HUNGARY. 67 

tude — all a tool to his ambition ; them too he flattered with 
the idea of becoming rulers of the world, in order that they 
might not think of liberty : he knew that man's breast can- 
not maintain in ascendancy two great passions at once. He 
gave them ambition and excluded the spirit of liberty. This 
ambition got hold of all the Sclave nations through Europe ; 
so Panslavism became the source of a movement, not of 
nationality, but of the dominion of languages. That word 
" language" replaced every other sentiment, and so it became 
a curse to the development of liberty. 

Only one part of the Sclavonic races saw the matter clear, 
and withstood the current of this dark Eussian plot. These 
were the Polish Democrats — the only ones who understood 
that to fight for liberty is to fight for nationality. Therefore 
they fought in our ranks, and were willing to flock in thou- 
sands upon thousands to aid us in our struggle ; but we could 
not arm them, so I would not accept them. We ourselves 
had a hundredfold more hands ready to fight than arms — 
and there was nobody in the world to supply us with arms. 

Now let me see what was the condition of Hungary under 
these circumstances. 

Eight hundred and fifty years ago, when the first King of 
Hungary, St. Stephen, becoming Christian himself, converted 
the Hungarian nation to Christianity, it was the Eoman 
Catholic clergy of Germany whom he invited to assist him 
in his pious work. They did assist him, but the assistance, as 
happens with human nature, was accompanied by some worldly 
designs. Hungary ofiPered a wide field to the ambition of 
foreigners, and they persuaded the King to adopt a curious 
principle, which he laid down in his last Will and Testament 
— that it is not good, for the people of a country to be but 
of one extraction and speak but one tongue. A second rule 
was, to adopt the language of the Church — Latin — for the 
language of government, legislature, law and all public pro- 
ceedings. This is the origin of that fatality, that Democracy 
did not grow up for centuries in Hungary. The public pro- 
ceedings being in Latin, the laws given in Latin, public 
instruction carried on in Latin, the great mass of the people, 
who where agriculturists, did not partake in any of this ; and 



68 

the few who in the ranks of the people partook in it, became 
severed and alienated from the people's interests. This dead 
Latin language, introduced into the public life of a living 
nation, was the most mischievous barrier against liberty. 
The first blow to it was stricken by the Eeformation. The 
Protestant Church, introducing the national language into 
the divine services, became a medium to the development of 
the spirit of liberty, and so our ancient struggles for religious 
liberty were always connected with the maintenance of politi- 
cal rights. But still, Latin public life went on down to 
1780. At that time, Joseph of Hapsburg, aiming at centra- 
lization, replaced the Latin by the German tongue. This 
roused the national spirit of Hungary • and our forefathers 
seeing that the dead Latin language, excluding the people 
from the public concerns, cannot be propitious to liberty, and 
anxious to oppose the design of the Viennese Cabinet to 
Germanize Hungary, and so melt it iiito the common absolutism 
of the Austrian dynasty — I say, anxious to oppose this design 
by a cheerful public life of the people itself, from the year 
1790 began to pass laws in the direction that by-and-by, 
step by step, the Latin language should be replaced in the 
public proceedings of the Legislature and of the Government 
by a living language familiar to the people itself. And what 
was more natural, than that, being in the necessity to choose 
one language, they choose the Magyar ? the more so, since 
those who spoke Hungarian were not only more than those 
who spoke any one of the other languages, but were if not 
more than, at least equal to, all those who spoke several 
other languages together. 

Be so kind to mark w^ell, gentlemen : no other language 
was oppressed — the Hungarian language was enforced upon 
nobody. Wherever another language was in use even in 
public life ; of whatever Church — whatever popular school — 
whatever community — it was not replaced by the Hungarian 
language. It was only the dead Latin, which by-and-by 
became eliminated from the diplomatic public life, and re- 
placed by the living Hungarian in Hungary. 

In Hungary, I say. Gentlemen, be pleased to mark : 
never was this measure extended into the municipal life of 



NOT SCLAVONIC. 69 

Croatia and Sclavonia, which, though belonging for 800 years 
to Hungary, still were not Hungary, but a race with distinct 
local institutions. 

The Croatians and Sclavonians themselves repeatedly urged 
us in the common parliament to afford them opportunity to 
learn the Hungarian language, that, having the right, they 
might also enjoy the benefit, of being employed in the govern-^ 
ment offices of our common Hungary. This opportunity was 
afforded to them, but nobody was forced to make use of it ; 
while neither with their own municipal and public life, nor 
with the domestic, social, religious life, of any other people 
in Hungary itself, did the Hungarian language ever interfere. 
It replaced only the Latin language, which no people spoke, 
and which was contrary to liberty, because it excluded the 
millions from public life. Willing to give freedom to the 
people, we expelled that Latin tongue ; which was an obstacle 
to its future. We did what every other nation in the old 
world has done, clearing by it the way to the universal 
liberty. 

Your country is happy even in that respect. Being a 
young nation, you did not find the Latin tongue in your way 
when you established this Eepublic ; so you did not want a 
law to eject it from your public life. You have a living 
language, which is spoken in your Congress, in your State 
Legislatures, and by which your Government rules. It is 
not the native language of your whole people — and yet no 
man in the Union takes it for an oppression that legislature 
and government is not carried on in every language spoken 
in the United States. 

And one thing I have to mention yet. This replacing of 
the Latin language by the Hungarian was not a work of our 
recent measures, it was done before, step by step, from 1791. 
When we carried in 1848 our democratic reforms, and gave 
political, social, civil, and full religious freedom to the whole 
people, we extended our cares to the equal protection of every 
tongue and race, affording to aU equal right to aid out of the 
public funds, for the moral, religious, and scientific develop- 
ment in churches and in schools. Nay, we extended this 
even to political affairs, sanctioning the free use of every 



70 SELF-GOVERNMENT IS FREEDOM. 

tongue, in the municipalities and communal corporations, as 
well as in the administration of justice. The promulgation 
of the laws in every tongue, the right to petition and to claim 
justice in each man's tongue, the duty of the government to 
answer in the same, all this was granted, and thus far more 
was done in that respect also, than any other nation ever 
accorded to the claims of tongues ; by far more than the 
United States ever did, though there is no country in the 
world where so many different languages are spoken as here. 
It is therefore the most calumnious misrepresentation to 
say that the Hungarians struggled for the dominion of their ' 
own race. No ; we struggled for civil, political, social, and 
religious freedom, common to all, against Austrian despotism. 
We struggled for the great principle of self-government 
against centralization ; because centralization is absolutism ; 
and is inconsistent with constitutional rights. Austria 
has given the very proof of it. The House of Austria 
had never the intention to grant constitutional life to the 
nations of Europe. I will prove that on another occasion. 
But the friends of the Hapsburgs say, it has granted a 
constitution — in March, 1849. Well, where is that Constitu- 
tion now ? It was not only never executed, but it was, three 
months ago, formally withdrawn. Even the word Ministry 
is blotted out from the dictionary of the Austrian govern- 
ment ! Schwarzenberg is again House, Court, and State 
Chancellor, as Metternich was ; only Metternich ruled not 
with the iron rule of martial law over the whole empire of 
xiustria as Schwarzenberg does. Metternich encroached upon 
the constitutional rights of Hungary, Transylvania, Croatia, 
and Slavonia, Schwarzenberg has abolished them, and 
young Erancis- Joseph has melted all the nations together into 
common bondage, where the promised equality of nationalities is 
carried out most literally, to be sure, for they are all equally 
oppressed, and all are equally ruled by absolutist principles 
and by the German language. And why was that iUusory 
constitution withdrawn? Because it was a lie from the 
beginning; an impossibility. It was founded on the principle 
of centralization. It centralized thirteen different nations, 
which had had no political history in common, except to 



SOLE HOPE OF ITALY, 71 

have groaned under Austrian rule. Under such circum- 
stances to have a common life was an absurdity augmented 
by deceit. 

I cannot exhaust this vast topic in one speech. We want 
Eepublican institutions, so founded on self-government every- 
where, that the people themselves may be sovereign every- 
where. This is the cause, for which I humbly request your 
protecting aid. It is the cause of oppressed Europe. It is 
the cause of Germany, bleeding under some thirty petty 
tyrants who lean on that league of despots, the basis of 
which is Petersburg. It is the cause of fair, but unfortunate 
Italy, which in so many respects is now dear to our heart. 
We have a common enemy ; so we are brothers in arms for 
freedom and independence. I know how Italy is situated ; 
and I dare confidently to declare, there is no hope for Italy, 
but in that great republican party, at the head of which 
Mazzini stands. It has nothing to do with communistical 
schemes, or the French doctrines of Socialism : but it wills, 
that Italy be free and republican. Whither else could Italy 
look for freedom and independence, if not to that party which 
Mazzini leads ? To the King of Naples perhaps ? Let me 
be silent about that execrated man. Or to the dynasty of 
Sardinia and Piedmont ? This professes to be constitutional ; 
yet it captures those poor Hungarian soldiers who seek an 
asylum in Piedmont, — captures, and delivers them to Austria 
to be shot : and they are shot, increasing the number of 
those 3742 martyrs whom Eadetzky murdered on the 
scaifold during three short years. The House of Savoy is 
become the bloodhound of Austria against fugitive Hun- 
garians. 

Gentlemen, the generous sympathy of public opinion here 
(God be blessed !) is strongly aroused to the wrongs and 
sufferings of Hungary. I look to your aid to keep that 
sympathy alive, — to urge the formation of societies to collect 
funds and support a loan, — to move in favour of the pro- 
positions, which I had the honour to express at the Corporation 
Banquet. Consider not the weakness of my address, but 
only the strength of my cause ; and following the generous 
impulse of your republican hearts, accord to it the protec- 



72 MR. DANA^S SPEECH. 

tive aid of the free independent Press. Then T may yet see 
fulfilled the noble \Yords of your Chairman's poetry : — 

Truth crush' d to earth shall rise again ; 

The eternal years of Grod are hers ; 
But error, wounded writhes in pain, 

And dies among .... 
(let me add, Sir,) . , ^oith all her worshippers. 

In the course of the same evening, one of the toasts drunk 
was, " To tlie Political Exiles of Europe," to which Michael 
Doheny, Esq., an Irish exile, first responded, in a speech 
full of animosity against England. After him Mr. Dana, 
made the following speech, which may be a useful comment 
on that of Kossuth. 

My friend, who has taken his seat, spoke in his own right 
as a political exile from Ireland, .a country than which none 
has more deeply suflFcred from the woes of foreign domination. 
I speak here by no such title. And yet if any man may 
without presumption claim to speak in behalf of the political 
exiles and rebels against tyranny, of several nations, of 
all nations indeed, it is an American. Eor he is not only 
himself the heir of a nation of rebels, but his whole lineage 
is cosmopolitan, and he may boast that he is akin to all the 
races of Europe. We have no exclusive origin, thank God ! 
In the veins of our country there flows the blood of a thou* 
sand tribes, just as our language is made up of a thousand 
idioms. We hear a good deal from certain quarters about the 
greatness of races, the practical energy of this race, the 
artistic genius of the other, and the great intellectual qualities 
of another. America disproves all these dogmas, and estab- 
lishes in their stead the higher principle that all races are 
capable of a noble development under noble institutions. 
Give freedom to the Celt, the Slavon, or the Italian, or what- 
ever other people ; give them freedom and independence -, 
establish among them the great principle of local self-govern- 
ment, and the earth does not more surely revolve in its orbit 
than they will in due time ripen into all the excellence and 
all the dignity of humanity. Men make and control institu- 
tions, but institutions in their turn make men. And if a 
people under Providence are endowed with institutions that 



ALL EMIGRATION IS POLITICAL. 73 

have given free play and healthy growth to the most useful 
and admirable powers of man, it is not for that people to 
boast of its race as better than other races, and thank God, 
like the Pharisee, that it is not as other men. No, it is for 
that people to see the cause of its good fortune in its institu- 
tions, and to remenaber that it has responsibilities, and that 
it owes a helping hand to others that honestly struggle for 
such benefits. Especially is this the case with the American 
people, made up as they are from all races, and absorbing 
yearly as they do so much of the best blood of all. America 
has thriven and grown strong upon the misfortunes of 
Europe. Our toast specially refers to the political exiles of 
Europe, but the truth is, that all the exiles of that continent 
are political. Every shipload of emigrants that seeks our 
shores has been banished by political causes ; for had the 
institutions of their country been such as to secure to them 
freedom and the prosperity of freedom, do you think they 
would have forsaken their homes and the homes of their 
fathers to seek new homes beyond the ocean ? We owe then 
to Europe a debt for all this population and power that it has 
flung upon our shores, and how else can we pay it except by 
doing what we can to help the European nations to gain their 
freedom and form institutions under which there will be no 
political exiles ? For one I go for paying that debt, accord- 
ing to our means and opportunities. I saw the other day in 
the streets a large body of Europeans of various nations, 
marching along with a red flag. In Paris, or Eome, or 
Vienna, such a procession would have been impossible, or if 
it could have got into the streets, it would have been assailed 
by the soldiery, and its members either shot down or flung 
into prison. Yet in New York they went peacefully on their 
way, made their demonstration in all freedom, and no trouble 
or harm came of it. Very many of those men were political 
exiles. And why ? Not because they were bad men, for 
here in New York nothing could be more quiet and appro- 
priate than their behaviour. But they prove, that from wdiat- 
ever country there are political exiles, there the institutions 
are bad. I know we are in the habit of hearing about Bed 
Eepublicans and Socialists as men who are dangerous on 

4. 



74 MILITARY ORGANIZATION 

account of their opinions, and who have deserved to be banished 
from France, from Germany, from Italy. I will not now say 
anything about those opinions, but this I do say, that a 
country where all opinions and every opinion cannot be held 
and freely discussed, has a bad system of government and 
bad institutions. It is not the men nor their opinions that 
stand condemned, but the government and institutions. 
Therefore it is that we must sympathize with such exiles, 
without regard to their opinions, and pray earnestly and 
labour earnestly for the elevation of all countries to freedom. 



IX.— ON MILITAEY INSTITUTIONS. 

\_8peecJi to the New YorJc Militia^ December lQth.'\ 

The First Division, consisting of four brigades, was pre- 
sented to Kossuth in the Castle Garden. Major-General 
Sandford then proceeded to address Kossuth as follows : — 

Governor Kossuth : — It is with no ordinary feeling of 
gratification that I have this opportunity of addressing you, 
in the name and on behalf of the citizen soldiers of the city 
of New York. With an unbounded admiration of your devo- 
tion to the great cause of constitutional liberty, and of that 
indomitable firmness with which you have persevered under 
all circumstances in sustaining it, they were most happy to 
testify, upon your arrival in our city, their sense of your 
services in that cause which they are organized to sustain, 
and now they are again assembled to greet you with a heart- 
felt welcome, and to listen to the voice of one whom they 
have learned to respect, to love, and to venerate. The body 
of men now presented to you, about five thousand in 
number, represents the First Division of New York State 
Militia. The division enrols about fifty thousand men in 
this city and upon Staten Island, and the law of our State 
only imposes upon the general body the duty of appearing 
armed and equipped once in each year, at an annual parade 
appointed for that purpose. But out of this large number 
the law provides for the organization of those who are 



OF NEW YORK. 75 

willing and desirous to acquire that degree of military 
science, to fit them, upon any sudden emergency of domestic 
insurrection or of foreign aggression, to sustain the laws and 
support the institutions of our country. They uniform and 
equip themselves at their own expense, and they serve 
without pay, satisfied with the consciousness that they are 
discharging a duty to their country, and qualifying them- 
selves to sustain the honour of our flag and the freedom won 
by our fathers. They represent fairly all classes of our citi- 
zens. Our hard-working and ingenious mechanic — our enter- 
prising and energetic merchant — our intelligent professional 
men — our grocers, butchers, bakers, and cartmen, are all to 
be found in our ranks, exhibiting in public spirit, energy, 
and intelligence a body of men not to be surpassed, even in 
this country of active enterprize and widely diffused intelli- 
gence. It is amongst such men, devoted to such a service, 
that, you may feel well assured, the intelligence of the noble 
struggle of the Hungarian people for their rights and 
liberties was received with the deepest feeling, and the 
progress of your contest watched with the most earnest 
solicitude. They exulted in your victories as the triumph of 
freedom over oppression and despotism — they saw in your 
almost superhuman energies and dauntless courage the hearts 
of a people determined to be free. They rejoiced that a great 
nation, with kindred principles and institutions, was esta- 
blished as an independent republic amidst the despotisms of 
Europe. But, alas ! all their hopes and anticipations were 
blasted. Such an example amidst the down-trodden subjects 
of the arbitrary governments of Europe, was viewed with 
alarm by their despotic rulers, and the enslaved hordes 
of the imperial Eussian were hurled upon the free sons of 
Hungary. Even with such mighty odds, we should not have 
despaired for Hungary, had she been afforded but one year 
of peaceful preparation to complete her organization and 
develop her resources. Her gallant sons upon her own soil, 
and battling for their homes, their altars, and their inde- 
pendence, would have been unconquerable. But treason and 
despotism combined, triumphed over freedom. Then com- 
menced a scene of horrors and cruelty, such as despots only 



76 AMERICA MUST AID 

and the minions of despots can perpetrate. * * * Hun- 
garian liberty may be cast down, but cannot be destroyed. 
The sacred flame bums unquenched in the hearts of the 
people, and will again burst forth, a glorious light to 
enlighten the nation — but a consuming fire to their oppres- 
sors. But when ? and how shall this be accomplished ? Sir, 
we believe and feel with you that this will be accomplished 
whenever the free people of America, uniting with those 
kindred nations of Europe which sustain and shall secure 
free institutions, will support and insist upon that great 
moral principle of international law which you have recently 
so eloquently and ably expounded — that one nation should 
not interfere with the domestic concerns of another. Esta- 
blish this great and just principle, and Hungary would 
again assume her station among the nations of the earth — 
free and independent. Establish this great principle, and 
Germany and Italy would also soon be free. Sir, we believe 
in this great principle ; we believe it to be a principle of 
justice and humanity; we believe it to be the inalienable 
right of every people to establish such forms of government 
as are best adapted to their condition, and as they may deem 
best calculated to ensure their own rights, liberties, and pur- 
suit of happiness. And we believe that this great principle 
of international law should be the basis of the intercourse of 
nations, and that we have no more right to make free with 
the focms of government of other nations, than with their 
forms 01 religion. But this principle being conceded and 
established, how is it to be enforced ? How are the despotic 
dynasties of Europe to be prevented from lending their com- 
bined energies to crush every germ of freedom amongst those 
who, if left to themselves, would, like Hungary, be free and 
independent. Solely by the method which you have so ably 
developed. Solely by inducing those nations which are 
strong enough to maintain the principles of international 
law — to unite in their support, and by such union, effectually 
guarantee the peace of the world. To effect this most de- 
sirable object, you have adopted the true method. You 
would operate upon the public opinion, and public opinion 
operating upon free government, creates and establishes 



EUROPEAN FREEDOM. 77 

public and international law. But when we see this great 
principle of non-intervention violated — when we see a free 
and united people crushed and trampled upon by foreign 
despots, because they have dared to proclaim and establish 
equal rights and privileges as the basis of their own institu- 
tutions, must we look tamely on and see the life-blood of 
freedom crushed out by the iron heel of barbaric despotism, 
and hear the deathgroans of the brave and free without 
daring to express our feelings or to extend the hand of 
sympathy and comfort to the suffering sons of liberty? No! 
in the name of outraged justice and humanity, no ! We will 
openly, warmly, and freely express our sympathy in the 
cause of freedom, and our approbation of the devotion, the 
endurance, and the gallantry of her sons. We will, by all 
constitutional modes, endeavour to sustain those principles, 
which will terminate this outrage upon the sacred laws of 
justice and humanity. We will further aid this cause by 
contributing our share to the contributions offered by our 
people to enable you to advance the establishment of those 
principles so important to the emancipation of your beloved 
Hungary, and so essential to the preservation of civil and 
religious liberty. And now upon this interesting occasion, 
I hail the presence of this noble company of faithful and 
devoted sons of Hungary, your companions in exile and in 
prison, and present them to this division ; men, who, like our 
fathers, pledged their sacred honours " to sustain the inde- 
pendence of their country." [Here there was an outburst 
of cheering, and Col. Berczenszy and the other Hungarians, 
companions in arms of Kossuth, all rose, and were again 
greeted with another burst of enthusiastic cheering.] We 
receive them as friends and brothers, and as martyrs in the 
same holy cause of constitutional liberty in which our 
fathers fought and bled, and suffered, and triumphed ; and 
in which, we trust and believe, you will also live to triumph 
and rejoice, in the bosom of your own, your native land. 

Loud applause followed the conclusion of this address. 

Kossuth then rose and said — 

General and Gentlemen, — I accept with the highest 
gratitude, the honour to meet the first division of the New 



78 GARIBALDI^S ADDRESS. 

York State Militia, who having, in their capacity of citizen 
soldiers, honoured me on my arrival by their participation in 
the generous welcome which I met with, have also, by the 
military honour bestowed on me, so much contributed to 
impart to this great demonstration that public character 
which cannot fail to prove highly beneficial to the cause wliich 
I hold up before the free people of this mighty republic, and 
which I dare confidently to state is the great question of 
freedom and independence to the European continent. I 
entreat you, gentlemen, not to expect any elaborate speech 
from me, because really I am unprepared to make one. You 
are citizen soldiers, a glorious title, to which I have the am- 
bition of aspiring ; so, I hope you will kindl}' excuse me, if 
I endeavour to speak to you as soldiers. Do you know, 
gentlemen, what is the finest speech I ever heard or read ? It 
is the address of Garibaldi to his Roman soldiers in tlie last 
war, when he told them : — '' Soldiers, what I have to offer 
you is fatigue, danger, straggling, and death — the chill of the 
cold night, the open air, and the burning sun — no lodgings, 
no munitions, no provisions — but forced marches, dangerous 
watchposts, and continual struggling with bayonets against 
batteries. Let those who love freedom and their country, 
follow me." That is the most glorious speech I ever heard 
in my life. But, of course, that is no speech for to-day. I will 
speak so, when I again meet the soldiers of Hungary, to 
fight once more the battle of freedom and independence. 
[After various compliments to General Sandford on the 
appearance of his soldiers, and the good order of the republic, 
Kossuth continued as follows :] I thank you for the explana- 
tion of the organization and discipline of this gallant division. 
Europe has many things to learn from America. It has to 
learn the value of free institutions — the expansive power of 
freedom — the practical value of local self-government, as 
opposed to centralization. Eut one of the most important 
lessons you give to Europe, is in the organization of the 
militia of the United States. You have the best organized 
army in the world, and yet you have scarcely a standing army 
at all. That is a necessary thing for Europe to learn from 
America — that great standing armies must cease. But they 



STANDING ARMIES MUST CEASE. 79 

can cease, only then^ when the nations are free ; for great 
standing armies are not national institutions, they are the 
instruments of dynastic violence or foreign despotism. The 
existence of tyranny imposes on Europe great standing armies. 
When the nations once become free, they will not want them, 
because they will not war with each other. Freedom will 
become a friendly link among nations. But as far as they 
may want them, your example shows that a popular militia, 
like yours, is the mightiest national Defence. Thirty-seven 
years ago a great battle was fought at New Orleans, which 
showed what a defence your country has in its militia. Nay 
more, your history proves that this institution affords the 
most powerful means of Offensive war, should war become 
indispensable. I am aware, gentlemen, that your war with 
Mexico was chiefly carried on by volunteers. I know what a 
distinguished part the volunteers of New York took in that 
war. And who were these volunteers? Who were those 
from New York city, and of other regiments ? They were of 
your militia, the source of that military spirit which is the 
glory of your country, and its safety when needed in time 
of war or social disorder. I learned all this from the 
United States, and it was my firm intention to carry out this 
militia organization in Hungary. My idea was and still is 
to do so, and I will endeavour, with the help of God, to 
carry it out. 

My idea is, there are duties towards one native land com- 
mon to every citizen, and public instruction and education 
must have such a direction as to enable every citizen to per- 
form them. One of these duties is to defend it in time of 
danger, to take up arms for its freedom and independence 
and security. My idea is to lay such a foundation for public 
instruction in the schools, that every boy in Hungary shall 
be educated in military skill, so much as is necessary for the 
defence of his native land, and those who feel inclined to 
adopt the profession of arms, might complete their education 
in higher public schools and universities, as is the case in 
the professions of the bar, and physic, and the pulpit. But 
I would have no distinction among the citizens. To defend 
our country is a common duty, and every one must know how 



80 A WHOLE NATION IS A MILITIA. 

to perform it. Taking the basis of your organization as an 
example for Hungary, Hungary would have at least one mil- 
lion of men ready to defend it against the oppression of any 
power whatever. That the militia of Hungary, thus deve- 
loped, would be the most solid guardian of my country's 
freedom and independence, we have shown in our past strug- 
gles. The glorious deeds which the unnamed heroes of the 
people achieved, proves what with previous preparation 
they could do in defence of their native land. Often they 
have gone into battle without knowing how to fire or cock 
a musket ; but they took batteries by their bayonets, and 
they achieved glorious deeds like those that are classed 
among the deeds of immortality. We have not either wish 
or inclination for conquest. We are content with our native 
land, if it be independent and free. For the maintenance of 
that independence and freedom, we established by law the 
institution of the National Guard. It is like your militia. I 
consider the organization to be like a porcupine, which moves 
on its own road quietly, but when attacked or when danger 
approaches, stretches forth its thorns. May God Almighty 
grant that I may soon see developed in my native land, the 
great institution of a National Guard ! 

The power of Hungary, thus established, is a basis indis- 
pensable to the freedom of Europe. I will prove this in a few 
words. The enemy of European freedom is Eussia. Now, can 
Hungary be a barrier to secure Europe against this power of 
Eussia ? I answer : yes. You are a nation of twenty-four 
millions, and you have an organized militia of some three 
millions; Hungary is a nation of fifteen millions, and at least 
can have one million of brave citizen soldiers. I hope this may 
be regarded, then, as a positive proof of what I say about 
the ability of Hungary to resist the power of despotism, and 
defend Europe against Eussian encroachments. Another thing 
is, the weakness of Eussia herself; for she is not so strong 
as people generally believe. It has taken her whole power 
to put down Hungary, and all she can raise consists of 
750,000 men. Then you must consider that the Eussian 
territory is of immense extent, and that its population is 
oppressed ; tranquillity and the order of the grave, — not the 



POWER OF HUNGARY AGAINST RUSSIA. 81 

order of contentment, — is kept, in Eussia itself, only by the 
armed soldiery of the Czar. Now, it is not much when I say 
that 250,000 men are indispensable to keep tranquillity in the 
interior of that empire ; 100,000 men are necessary to guard 
its frontiers extending from Siberia to Turkey; 100,000 to 
keep down the heroic spirit of oppressed Poland. Take all 
this together, and you will see that Eussia scarcely can, at 
the utmost, employ 300,000 men in a foreign war, and, 
really, it had not more engaged, as history will prove, in the 
greatest struggle it made for existence — it could not bring- 
more into the field. The million of citizen soldiers would 
not require to be so brave as they are, to be a match for 
those 300,000 men; and, therefore, the first result of restored 
independence in Hungary would be — should the Czar once 
more have the arrogant intention to put his foot upon man- 
kind's neck, as he blasphemously boasted he had the autho- 
rity of God to do — the repression of his power by Hungary. 
Not only would it be repressed, but Hungary could assault 
him in a~quarter where she would find powerful allies. His 
financial embarrassments are very great, for you know that 
even in the brief war in Hungary he was necessitated to raise 
a loan in England. We should have for our allies the op- 
pressed people, and our steps would be marked by the 
liberation of all who are now enslaved. First among our 
allies would be the Polish nation, which is not restricted to 
the Poland of the maps, but extends through the wide pro- 
vinces of Gallicia, Lithuania, &c. These are proofs that the 
might of Eussia is not so immense that it should intimidate 
a nation fighting in a just cause. With Hungary once free, 
Eussia would never dare to threaten European liberty again. 
But if Eussia is so weak as I have shown her to be, whv. 
you may say, do I ask your support and aid against her 
interference ? Because Eussia is only thirty hours' distance 
from Hungary, and one of her large armies stands prepared to 
move at any time against the liberties of our people, before ^ 
we could have time to develop our resources. This is the 
motive why 1 ask, in the name of my country, the great and 
beneficial support of the United States to check and prevent 
Eussian interference in Hungary, so that we may have tme 

4§ 



82 HUNGARY NEEDS ONLY PREPARATION. 

to erect it into an insurmountable barrier and impregnable 
fortress against the despotism of the Czar. This, I say, is 
the reason why I claim aid from the United States, and_ask 
^tjto assume its rightful executive in ihe police of nations. 
That is the only glory which is wanting to the lustre of your 
glorious stars/ The militia of the United States having 
been the assertors of the independence and liberties of this 
country and the guardians of its security, have now scarcely 
any other calling ; and I confidently hope, that being your 
condition, you will not deny your generous support to the 
great principle of non-interference, in the next struggle 
which Hungary will make for freedom and independence, 
which even now is felt in the air, and is pointed out by the 

^ finger of God himself. My second earnest wish and hope is, 

that the people will see that their commerce with other 

people, whether in revolution or not, shall be secured. It 

is not so much my interest as it is your right ; and I hope 

I the militia of the United States will ever be ready to protect 

jl oppressed humanity. My tliii'd humble claim is, that this 
great republic shall recognize the legitimate independence of 
Hungary. The militia of this country fought and bled for 
that principle upon your own soil ; so, by the glory of your 
predecessors — by all the blessings which have flowed from 
your struggle, which make your glory and happiness — you 
v/ill feel inclined to support this my humble claim for the 
recognition of the legitimate independence of my fatherland. 
I thank you for the generous sympathy, and for the 
reception and welcome of my companions, the devoted sons 
of Plungary, who were ready to sacrifice life and fortune to 
the independence of their native land. There are several 
among them who were already soldiers before our struggle, 
and they employed their military skill in the service of their 
country. But there were others who were not soldiers, yet 
whose patriotism led them to embrace the cause of their 
native land, and they proved to be brave and efficient sup- 
porters of the freedom for which they fought. Thanking 
you for the sympathy you have expressed for them, I 
promise you, gentlemen, that they will prove themselves 
worthy of it. I will point out to them the most dangerous 



FRENCH CENTRALIZATION. 83 

places, and I know they will acquit themselves honourably 
and bravely. As to myself, I have here a sword on my side 
given to me by an American citizen. This being a gift from 
a citizen of the United States, I take it as a token of 
encouragement to go on in that way by which, with the 
blessing of Almighty God, I shall yet be enabled again 
to see my fatherland independent and free. I swear here 
before you, that this American sword in my hand shall 
be always faithful in the cause of freedom — that it shall be 
ever foremost in the battle — and that it shall never be 
polluted by ambition or cowardice. 



► ^ g l e I * ' 



X.—CONDITIONS ESSENTIAL FOE DEMOCEACY 
AND PEACE. 

\_Rejply to the Address of the Democrats of Tarn/many Sall^ 
New TorJc, Dec, 17th.'] 

Mr. Sickles, who made the address, closed by stating that 
he contributed to the cause of Hungary '' a golden dollar, 
fresh from the free mines of the Pacific;" adding that he 
trusted millions would follow, and that the ''Almighty 
Dollar," if still the proverb of a money-making people, w^ould 
become a symbol of its noblest instinjcts and truest ambition. 

Kossuth, in reply, after warm thanks, declined the personal 
praises bestowed on him, and sketched the series of events by 
which the Austrian tyranny had converted him from insig- 
nificance into a man of importance. He then proceeded to 
comment on France,* as follows : — 

I hope that the great French nation will soon succeed to 
establish a true republic. But I have come to the conviction, 
that for freedom tHere is no duration in Centralization, 
which is a legacy of ambitious men. To l)e conquerors, 
power must be centralized; but to be a free nation, self- 
government must reign in families, villages, cities, counties, 
states. As power now is lodged in France, the government 
has in its hand an army of half a million of men, under that 
iron discipline which is needed in a standing army. It has 

^ The news of the coujp^ d^ etat had not yet reached liim. 



8i JUSTICE MUST PRECEDE PEACE. 

under its control a budget of more than a thousand million 
francs. It can dispose of every public office in France ; it 
has a civil army of more than 500,000 men: the mayor of 
the least village derives his appointment from the government- 
All the police, all the ge7is d' urines, are in its hands. Now, 
gentlemen, is it not clear that — with such authority and force, 
— not to become dangerous to liberty, every President needs 
to be a Washington. And AVashingtons are not so thickly 
# strewn around. Woe to the country, whose institutions are 
I such, that their freedom depends on the personal character of 
one man. Be he the best man in the world, he will not 
overcome the essential repugnance of his position to freedom. 
When France abandons this centralization, and carries out her 
own principles of " Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," by local 
self-government, she will be the great basis of European 
republics. As to sovereignty of the people, I take it that the 
right to cast a vote for the election of a President once in 
four years does not exhaust the sovereign rights of a nation. 
A people deciding about its own matters, must be everywhere 
master of its own fate, in village communes as much as in 
electing its chief officer. 

You have spoken about certain persons who will have 
" peace at any price." Of course you feel that permanent peace 
cannot be had at any less price, than that which buys justice ; 
nor can there be justice, where is no freedom. Under oppres- 
sion is neither contentment nor tranquillity. There are some 
., who prefer being oppressed to the dangers of shaking off op- 
\ pression ; but I am sure there are millions who fear death less 
than enslavement. Peace therefore will not exist, though all 
your Rothschilds and Barings help the despots. To withhold 
materia] aid from the oppressed will not avert the war, but 
by depriving the leaders of the means of concert will simply 
make the struggle more lingering : a result surely not desired 
by friends of peace. 

But, sir, I thank you for your dollar. The ocean is com- 
[ posed of drops. The greatest results are achieved, not by 
I individuals, but by the humble industry of mankind, inces- 
' santly bringing man nearer to the aim providentially destined 
i for him. Not all the Eothschilds together can wield such 



PROTESTANT STRUGGLES OF HUNGARY. 85 

sums as poor people can ; for the poor count by millions. 
Those dollars of the people have another great value. One 
million of them given by a million of men gives hope to the 
popular cause : it gives the sympathy and support of a mil- 
lion men. I bless God for that word of yours, that the one 
dollar should be followed by many ; for then your example 
would not only in a financial respect be a great benefit, but 
afford a foundation for that freedom which the j\lmighty 
designs for the nations. Here is a great glory for your 
country to aim at. It is glorious to stand at the top of the 
pyramid of humanity ; more glorious to become yourselves 
the pillar on which the welfare of human nature rests. For 
this, mankind looks to your country with hope and con- ' 
fidence. 



XI.— HUNGATIY AND AUSTEIA IN EELiaiOUS 
CONTEAST. 

[^Address in the Flymouth Church at BrooMyn, Dec. 18^^, 1851.] 

The Eev. H. W. Beecher having assured Kossuth of the 
deep and religious interest long felt and expressed towards 
him within those very walls ; Kossuth replied, declaring that 
he felt himself always in the power of God, and believed 
Christianity and freedom to be but one cause. He went on 
to add : 

The cause of Hungary is strongly connected with the 
principle of religious liberty on earth. In the first war of the 
sixteenth century a battle was fought by the Moslems in 
Hungary, by which the power of our nation was almost 
overthrown. At that time the monarchy was elective. A 
Hungarian, who was Governor of Transylvania, was chosen 
king, but another party elected Ferdinand of Austria to be 
King of Hungary. A long struggle ensued, in which the 
Princes of Transylvania called in Turkish aid against the 
House of Austria. 

In the hour of necessity, the House of Austria complied 
with the wishes of my nation, whenever my country had 
taken up arms ; but no sooner was the sword laid down, than 



86 CATHOLICS OF HUNGARY. 

this dynasty always neglected to perform its promises. In 
the midst of the last century, under Maria Theresa, those 
who did not belong to the Catholic faith were almost 
excluded from all offices. Joseph succeeded, who was a 
tolerant man ; but scarcely was he in his grave, when the 
Emperor Francis renewed persecution, and it was only in 
1848, that religious liberty was established to every creed. 
When the House of Austria took arms against the laws of 
1848, they took arms against religious liberty. 

In our Parliament, it was Roman Catholics who stood in 
the van of battle for religious liberty : but when I say this, I 
must state it without drawing any commentary from it. It 
was reserved to our revolution to sliow the development of 
the glorious cause of freedom. When my country imposed 
on me the duty to govern the land, I was ready to show the 
confidence I had in religious freedom. I chose a Catholic 
Minister to be Minister of Education in Hungary, and he 
fully justified the confidence I reposed in him. He has 
shown that our Constitution is founded upon equality ; that 
it regards all men as citizens, and makes no distinction of 
profession. It is only under free institutions that a clergy- 
man can remain a clergyman with burning heart towards his 
own duties, and yet, when called to perform the duties of a 
citizen, be no longer a clergyman but a citizen. Could the 
Church of Eome have appreciated this principle, and have 
acted upon it, my friend Mazzini were not now necessary for 
the freedom of Italy. But as Eome did not appreciate it, 
the temporal power of the Pope will probably fall at the next 
revolution. 

My principles are, that the Church shall not meddle with 
politics, and Government will not meddle with religion. In 
every society there are political and civil concerns on one 
side, and on the other social concerns ; for the first, civil 
authority must be established — in political and civil respects 
every one has to acknowledge the power of its jurisdiction. 
Eut, in respect to social interests, it is quite the contrary. 
Eeligion is not an institution — it is a matter of conscience. 

For the support of these principles I ask your generous 
aid. You know that whenever the House of Austria attains 



AUSTRIA AND RUSSIA INTOLERANT. 87 

to any strength, its first step is to break down religious 
liberty. And Austria is helped by Eussia, which is even still 
less propitious to these principles; you remember the 
insolence or hardship to which in E,ussia those people are 
subject who do not belong to the Greek Church; at the present 
time the poor Jews are subjected to great indignities, and 
compelled, if not to shave off their hair, to cut it in a parti- 
cular manner, so as to distinguish them from members of 
the Greek Church. But Hungary, by the providence of 
God, is destined to become once more the vanguard of civi- 
lization, and of religious liberty for the whole of the European 
Continent against the encroachments of Eussian despotism, 
as it has already been the barrier of Christianity against 
Islamism. 

Kossuth then proceeded to explain, that any moneys con« 
tributed by the generosity of the American public would not 
be employed as a warlike fund, for which it would be utterly 
insignificant ; but solely as a means of enabling the oppressed 
to concert their measures. After this he canvassed the three 
props of Austria, and pointed out the weakness of them all ; 
viz. its loans, — its army, — and Eussia. Its loans run fast 
to a bankruptcy. Its army is composed of nations which 
hate it. Under the Austrian government, the Tyrol perhaps 
alone has escaped bombardments, scaffolds, and jails filled 
with patriots. The armies are raised by forcible con- 
scriptions, and contain some hundred thousand Hungarians 
who recently fought and conquered Austria, whom Austria 
now keeps in drill to serve against her when the time comes. 
As to the third prop — Eussia, — possibly for some days yet 
in the future it may support Austria ; but not in a long war : 
Austria can never stand in a long war. 

I am told (said Kossuth) that some who call themselves 
'' men of peace " cry out for jjeace at any price. But is the 
present condition peace? Is the scaffold peace? — that! 
scaffold, on which in Lombardy during the " peaceful " years ! 
the blood of 3742 patriots has been shed. "When the prisons | 
of Austria are filled with patriots, is that peace ? or is the I 
discontent of all the nations peace ? I do not believe that f 
the Lord Created the world for such a kind of peace as tKat, — | 



88 TESTIMONY TO KOSSUTH 

to be a prison, — to be a volcano, boiling up and ready to 
break out. No : but with justice and liberty there will be 
contentment, and, with contentment, peace — lasting peace, 
consistent peace : while from the tyrants of the world there 
is oppression, and with oppression the breaking forth of 
war 



XII.— PUBLIC PIEACY OF RUSSIA. 

{Reply to tJie Address of the Bar of Neiv York, Dec. 19th, 1851.] 

A reception and a banquet to Kossuth having been pre- 
pared by the Bar at Tripler Hall, ex-justice Jones introduced 
him with a short speech ; after which Judge Sandford, in the 
name of the whole Bar, read an ample address, of which the 
following is the principal part : — 

Governor Kossuth. — The Bar of New York, having 
participated with their fellow-citizens in extending to you 
that cordial and enthusiastic welcome which greeted your 
landing upon the shores of America, have solicited the oppor- 
tunity to express to you, as a member of the legal profession, 
their respect for your great talents and eminent attainments, 
and their admiration for the ardour and enthusiasm with 
which you have devoted all your powers and energies to 
the sacred cause of the emancipation of your native land. 
Wherever freedom has needed an advocate, wherever law has 
required a supporter, wherever tyranny and oppression have 
provoked resistance, and men have been found for the occa- 
sion, it is the proud honour of our common profession to 
have presented from our ranks some prominent individual 
who has generously and boldly engaged in the service ; and 
Hungary has furnished to the world one of the most striking 
in the brilliant series of illustrious examples. As early as 
the year 1840, the public history of Hungary had made us 
acquainted with the distinguished part which a Mr. Kossuth, 
an attorney, as he was then described, had performed in 
sustaining the laws of his country. Mr. Kossuth, the 
Attorney of that day, has since matured into the Counsellor, 



FROM THE BAR OF NEW YORK. 89 

Statesman, Patriot, Governor, and now stands before us the 
Exile, more distinguished for his firmness and undaunted 
courage in his last reverse than for his exaltation by the free 
choice of his countrymen. After the years of your imprison- 
ment and painful anxiety had worn away, and the illegal 
measure of your arrest had been publicly acknowledged, we 
found you restored to your personal liberty, and again 
ardently engaged in the great cause of your country's freedom. 
At the meeting of the Diet of Hungary, which was held in 
November, 1847, and before the flame of revolution had 
illuminated Europe, we found a series of acts resolved upon 
by that body, which declared an equality of civil rights and 
of public burdens among all classes, denominations, and 
races in Hungary and its provinces, perfect toleration for 
every form of religion, an extension of the elective franchise, 
universal freedom in the sale of landed property, liberty to 
strangers to settle in the country, the emancipation of the 
Jews, the sum of eight millions set apart to encourage 
manufactures and construct roads, and the nobles of Hungary, 
by a voluntary act, abolishing the old tenure of the lands, 
thereby constituting the producing classes to be absolute 
owners of nearly one half of the cultivated territory in the 
kingdom. This great advance made by your country in a 
system of benign and ameliorating legislation, was checked 
by occurrences which are too fresh in your recollection to 
require a recapitulation. We welcome you among us ; we 
tender you our admiration for your efforts ; our sympathy 
for your sufferings ; our cordial wishes that your persevering 
labours may be successful in restoring your country to her 
place among nations, and her people to the enjoyment of 
those blessings of civil and religious liberty, to which, by 
their intelligence and bravery, and by the laws of nature and 
of nature's God, they are justly entitled. Our professional 
pursuits have led us to the study of the system of jurispru- 
dence which has been matured by the wisdom and experience 
of ages, but which has been recognized by all eminent jurists 
to be founded upon the defined principles of Christianity. 
Erom that great source of law we have learned, that as mem- 
bers of the family of mankind, our duties are not bounded by 



90 LAW EMBRACES THE EARTH. 

the territorial limits of the government which protects us, 
nor circumscribed as to time or space. We have framed 
a constitution of government, and under it have adopted a 
system of laws which we are bound to execute and obey. 
The stability and efficiency of our own government are de- 
pendent upon the intelligence, virtue, and moderation of our 
people. It has been justly remarked by one of our most 
distinguished jurists, that '' in a republic, every citizen is 
himself in some measure entrusted with the public safety, 
and acts an important part for its weal or woe." Trained 
as we have been in these principles of self-government, 
appreciating all the blessings which a bounteous Creator has 
so profusely showered upon us, and desirous to see the 
principles of civil and religious liberty extended to other 
nations, we rejoice at eveiy uprising of their oppressed 
people ; we sympathize with their struggles, and within the 
limits of our public laws and public policy, we aid them in 
their efforts. If through weakness or treachery they fail, 
we grieve at their misfortunes. In you, sir, we behold a 
i personification of that gi'eat principle which forms the corner 
!, stone of our own revered Constitution — the right of self- 
I government. Darkened as has been the horizon of suffering 
Hungary, in you, sir, still burns that living fire of freedom, 
j which we trust will yet light up her firmament, and shed its 
(lustrous flame over her wasted lands. "The unnamed 
demi-gods" whose blood has moistened her battle-fields, 
the martyrs whose lives have been freely offered up on the 
scaffold and beneath the axe, the living exiles now scattered 
through distant lands, have not suffered, are not suffering in 
vain. Governments were created for the benefit of the 
many, and not of the few. A day, an hour of retribution 
will yet come ; the Almighty promise will not be forgotten 
— " Vengeance is mine — I will repay it, saith the Lord." 

Kossuth thereupon replied : — 

Gentlemen, — Highly as I value the opportunity to meet 
the gentlemen of the Bar, I should have felt very much 
embarrassed to have to answer the address of that corporation 
before such a numerous and distinguished assembly, had not 



JURISPRUDENCE IS PROGRESSIVE. 91 

you, sir, relieved my well-founded anxiety by justly antici- 
pating and appreciating my difficulties. Let me hope, that 
herein you were the interpreter of this distinguished assembly's 
indulgence. 

Gentlemen of the Bar, you have the noble task to be the 
first interpreters of the law ; to make it subservient to justice ; 
to maintain its eternal principles against encroachment ; and 
to restore those principles to life, whenever they become 
obliterated by misunderstanding or by violence. My opinion 
is, that Law must keep pace in its development with institu- 
tions and intelligence, and until these are perfect, law is and 
must be with them in continual progress. Justice is im- . 
mortal, eternal, and immutable, like God himself ; and the 1 
development of law is only then a progress, when it is directed I 
towards those principles which, like Him, are eternal ; and | 
whenever prejudice or error succeeds in establishing in i 
customary law any doctrine contrary to eternal justice, it is 
one of your noblest duties, gentlemen, — having no written 
Code to fetter justice within the bonds of error and prejudice, 
— it is one of your noblest duties to apply Principles, — to 
show that an unjust custom is a corrupt practice, an abuse ; 
and by showing this, to originate that change, or rather 
development in the unwritten, customary law, which is 
necessary to make it protect justice, instead of opposing and 
violating it. 

If this be your noble vocation in respect to the Private 
laws of your country, let me entreat you, gentlemen, to 
extend it to that Public law which, regulating the mutual 
duties of nations towards each other, rules the destinies of 
humanity. You know that in that eternal code of " nature 
and of nature's God," which your forefathers invoked when 
they raised the colonies of England to the rank of a free 
nation, there are no pettifogging subtleties, but only ever- 
lasting principles : everlasting, like those by which the world 
is ruled. You know that when artificial cunning of ambitious | 
oppressors succeeds to pervert those principles, and when j 
passive indifference or thoughtlessness submits to it, as 
weakness must submit : it is the noble destiny — let me say, 
duty — of enlightened nations, alike powerful as free, to 



92 OPPRESSION IS NOW ASCENDANT. 

restore those eternal principles to practical validity, so that 
justice, light, and truth may sway, where injustice, oppression, 
and error have prevailed. Eaise high the torch of truth ; 
cast its beams on the dark field of arbitrary prejudice ; 
become the champions of principles, and your people will be 
the regenerators of International law. 

It will. A tempestuous life has somewhat sharpened my 
eye, and had it even not done so, still I would dare to say, I 
know how to read your people's heart. It is conscious of 
your country's power ; it is jealous of its own dignity ; it 
knows that it is able to restore the law of nations to the 
principles of justice and right ; and knowing its ability, its 
will shall not be lacking. Let the cause of Hungary become 
the opportunity for the restoration of true and just inter- 
national law. Mankind is come to the eleventh hour in its 
destinies. One hour of delay more, and its fate may be 
sealed, and nothing left to the generous inclinations of your 
people — so tender-hearted, so noble, and so kind — but 
to mourn over murdered nations, its beloved brethren in 
humanity. 

I have but to make a few remarks about two objections, 
which I am told I shall have to contend with. The first is, 
that it is a leading principle of the United States not to 
interfere with European nations. I may perhaps assume 
that you have been pleased to acquaint yourselves with what 
I have elsewhere said on that argument ; — viz. that the 
United States had never entertained or confessed such a 
principle, or at any rate had abandoned it, and had been 
forced to do so : which indicates it to have been only a 
temporary policy. I stated the mighty difference between 
neutrality and non-interference ; so I will only briefly remark 
that a like difference exists between alliance and interference. 
Every independent power has the right to form alliances, 
but is not under duty to do so : it may remain neutral, if 
it please. Neither alliances nor neutrality are matters of 
principle, but simply of policy. They may hurt interest, 
but do not violate law ; whereas with interference the con- 
trary is the case. Interference with the sovereign right of 
! nations to resist oppression, or to alter tiieir institutions and 



WHO ARE PIRATES? 93 

government, is a violation of the law of nations and of God ' ■ 
therefore non-interference is a duty common to every power / 
and every nation, and is placed under the safeguard of every I 
power, of every nation. He who violates that law is like a J 
pirate : every power on earth has the duty to chase him down 
as a curse to human nature. There is not a man in the 
United States but would avow that a pirate must be chased^ 
down; and no man more readily than the gentlemen ofj 
trade. A gentleman who came yesterday to honour me with 
the invitation of Cincinnati, that rising wonder of the West, 
— with eloquence which speaks volumes in one word, desig- 
nated as 'piracy the interference of foreign violence with the 
domestic concerns of a nation. There is such a moving 
power in a word of truth ! That word has relieved me of 
many long speeches. I no longer need to discuss the 
principle of your foreign policy : there can be no doubt 
about what is lawful, what is a duty, against piracy. Your 
naval forces are, and must be, instructed to put down piracy 
wherever they meet it, on whatever geographic lines, whether 
in European or in American waters. You sent your Com- 
modore Decatur for that purpose to the Mediterranean, who 
told the Dey of Algiers, that " if he claims powder, he will 
have it with the balls ;" and no man in the Uniied States 
imagined this to oppose your received policy. Nobody then 
objected that it is the ruling principle of the United States 
not to meddle with European or African concerns ; rather, 
if your government had neglected so to do, I am sure the 
gentlemen of trade would have been foremost to complain. 
Now, in the name of all which is pleasing to God and sacred 
to man, if all are ready thus to unite in the outcry against a 
rover, who, at the danger of his own life, boards some frail 
ship, murders some poor sailors, or takes a few bales of 
cotton — is there no hope to see a similar universal outcry 
against those great pirates who board, not some small cutters, 
but the beloved home of nations ? who murder, not some 
few sailors, but whole peoples ? who shed blood, not by 
drops, but by torrents ? who rob, not some hundred weight 
of merchandize, but the freedom, independence, welfare, and 
the very existence of nations? Oh God and Father of 



94 JUSTICE IS INTEREST. 

human kind ! spare — oh spare that degradation to thy 
children ; that in their destinies some bales of cotton should 
more weigh than those great moralities. Alas ! what a 
pitiful sight ! A miserable pickpocket, a drunken highway 
robber, chased by the whole human race to the gallows : and 
those who pickpocket the life-sweat of nations, rob them of 
their welfare, of their liberty, and murder them by thousands 
— these high-handed criminals proudly raise their brow, 
trample upon mankind, and degrade its laws before their 
high reverential name, and term themselves " most sacred 
majesties." But may God be blessed, there is hope for 
human nature ; for there is a powerful, free, mighty people 
here on the virgin soil of America, ready to protect the laws 
of man and of Heaven against the execrated pirates and 
their associates. 

But again I am told, " The United States, as a power, are 
not indifferent ; we sj/mpathize deeply with those who are 
oppressed ; we will respect the laws of nations ; but we have 
no interest to make them respected by others towards others." 
Interest ! and always interest ! Oh, how cupidity has suc- 
ceeded to misrepresent the word ? Is there any interest 
which could outweigh the interest of justice and of right ? 
Interest ! But I answer by the very words of one of the 
most distinguished members of your profession, gentlemen, 
the present Honourable Secretary of State : — " The United 
States, as a nation, have precisely the same interest (yes, 
interest is his word) in international law as a private indi- 
vidual has in the laws of his country." He was a member 
of the bar who advanced that principle of eternal justice 
against the mere fact of policy ; and now that he is in the 
position to carry out the principle which he has advanced, I 
confidently trust he will be as good as his word,* and that 
his honourable colleagues, the gentlemen of the bar, will 
remember their calling to maintain the permanent principles 
of justice against the encroachments of accidental policy. 

But I may be answered — " If we (the United States) 
avow that we will not endure the interference of Eussia in 

^ See the extracts from Mr, Webster's Speech at the Washington 
Banquet. 



CAUTION OF RUSSIA. 95 

Hungary (for that is the practical meaning, I will not deny), 
and if Eussia should not respect our declaration ; then we 
might have to go to war." Well, I am not the man to 
decline the consequences of my principles. I will not steal 
into your sympathy by evasion. Yes, gentlemen, I confess, 
sliould Eussia not respect such a declaration of your country, 
then you are forced to go to war, or else be degraded before 
mankind. But, gentlemen, you must not shrink back from 
the mere word war ; you must consider what is the probability 
of its occurrence. I have already stated publicly my certain 
knowledge how vulnerable Eussia is ; how weak she is in- 
ternally. But the best clue to you as to what will be her 
future conduct, if you act decisively, will be gained by 
examining the extreme caution and timidity with which, in 
the late events, she felt her way, before she interposed by 
force. 

The last French Ee volution broke out in February, 1848. 

The Czar hates republics, — name and thing ; but he did not 

interfere against the France of Lamartine, any more than 

against the France of Louis Philippe in 1830. Why not? 

He dared not. But he resorted to his natural and his most 

dangerous weapon, secret diplomacy/. He sent male and 

female intriguers to Paris, and succeeded in turning the 

revolution into a mock republic. But from the pulsations 

of the great French heart every tyrant had trembled. The 

German nation took its destiny into its own hands, and 

proposed to itself to become one, in Frankfort. The throne 

in Berlin quaked ; the Austrian emperor fled from his palace, 

a few weeks after he had with his own hands waved the flag 

of freedom out of his window. In Vienna an Austrian 

Parliament met. A constitution was devised for Polish 

Gallicia, linked by blood, history, and natm^e, to the Poland 

domineered over by the Czar ; while on its western frontier 

another Polish province, Posen, was wrapt in revolutionary 

flames. You can imagine how the Czar raged, how he 

wished to unite all mankind in one head, so that he might 

cut it off with a single blow ; and still he nowhere interfered. 

Why not ? Again I say, he was prudently afraid. However, 

the French republic became very innocent to him — almost 



96 RUSSIA IN TRANSYLVANIA. 

an ally in some respects, really an ally in others, as in the 
case of unfortunate Eome. The gentlemen at Frankfort 
proved also to be very innocent. The hopes of Germany 
failed — the people were shot down in Vienna, Prague, 
Lemberg,— the Austrian mock Parliament was sent from 
Vienna to Kremsen, and from Kremsen home, Only 
Hungary stood firm, steady, victorious — the Czar had 
nothing more to fear from all revolutionary Europe — nothing 
from Germany — nothing from Prance. He had no fear 
from the United States, since he knew that your government 
then was not willing to meddle with European affairs : so 
he had free hands in Hungary. But one thing still he did 
not know, and that was— what will England and what will 
Turkey say, if he interferes ? — and that consideration alone 
was sufficient to check him. So anxious was he to feel the 
pulse of England and of Turkey, that he sent first a small 
army — some ten thousand men — to help the Austrians in 
Transylvania ; and sent them in such a manner as to have, 
in case of need, for excuse, that he was called to do so, not 
hy Austria oiily, hut hy that part of the people also, which, 
deceived by foul delusion, stood by Austria I Oh, it was an 
infernal plot ! We beat down and drove out his 1 0,000 
men, together with all the Austrians — but the Czar had won 
his game. He was hereby assured that he would have no 
foreign power to oppose him when he dared to violate the 
law of nations by an armed interference in Hungary. So 
he interfered with all his might. 

It is a torture even to remember, how like a dream 
vanished all our hopes that there is yet justice on earth. 
When I saw my nation, as a handful of brave men, forsaken 
to fight alone that immense battle for humanity ; when I saw 
Eiissian diplomacy stealing, like secret poison, into our 
ranks, introducing treason into them ; — but let me not look 
back : it is all in vain ; the past is past. Forward is my 
word, and forward 1 will go ; for I know that there is yet a 
God in heaven, and there is a people like you on earth, and 
there is a power of decided will here also in this bleeding 
heart. It is my motto still, that ''there is no difficulty to 
him who wills." But so much is a fact, so much is sure. 



HOW EUROPE MAY BE SAVED. 97 

that the Czar did not dare to interfere until Tie was assured 
that he tooiild meet no foreign power to oppose him. Show 
him, free people of America — show him in a manly declara- 
tion, that he will meet your force if he dares once more to 
trample on the laws of nations — accompany this declaration 
wdth an augmentation of your Mediterranean fleets, and be 
sure he will not stir. You will have no war, and Austria 
falls almost without a battle, like a house without founda- 
tion, raised upon the sand ; Hungary — my poor Hungary — 
will be free, and Europe's oppressed continent able to 
arrange its domestic concerns. Even without my appeal to 
your sympathy, you have the source in your own generous 
hearts. This meeting is a substantial proof of it. Eeceive 
my thanks. 

I have done, gentlemen ; I am worn out. I must reserve 
for another occasion what I would say further, were I able. 
I know that w^ien I speak in this glorious country, there is 
the mighty engine of the press which enables me to address 
the whole people. Let me now say that the ground on ! 
which the hopes of my native land rest, is the principle of | 
justice, right, and law. To the maintenance of these you '; 
have devoted your lives, gentlemen of the Bar. I leave 
them under your professional care, and I trust they will find 
many advocates among you. 



Xni.— CLAIMS OF HUNaAEY ON THE FEMALE SEX. 

[^Speech to the Ladies of New York.'] 

The Eev. Dr. Tyng having spoken in the name of the 
Ladies of New York, and concluded with the words : ''And 
now, sir, the ladies whom I have the honour to represent, 
knowing your history, and fully aware of its vast importance, 
desire themselves to be the audience, and to hear the voice of 
Kossuth, and the claims of Hungary." Kossuth replied as 
follows : — 

I w^ould I were able to answer that call. I would I were 
able suitably to fill the place which your kindness has assigned 

5 



98 WOMEN, THE MUSIC OF LIFE. 

to me. You were pleased to say that Austria was blind to let 
me escape. Be assured that it was not the merit of Austria. 
She would have been very glad to bury me alive, but the 
Sultan of Turkey took courage, and notwithstanding all the 
remonstrances of Austria, I am free. 

Ladies, worn out as I am^ still I am very glad that the 
ladies of New York condescend to listen to my farewell. 
When in the midst of a busy day, the watchful care of a 
guardian angel throws some flowers of joy in the thorny way 
of man, he gathers them up with thanks : a cheerful thrill 
quivers through his heart, like the melody of an ^olian harp ; 
but the earnest duties of life soon claim his attention and his 
cares. The melodious thrill dies away, and on he must go ; 
on he goes, joyless, cheerless, and cold, every fibre of his 
heart bent to the earnest duties of the day. But when the 
hard work of the day is done, and the stress of mind for a 
moment subsides, then the heart again claims its right, and 
the tender fingers of our memory gather up again the violets 
of joy which the guardian angel threw in our way, and we 
look at them with delight; while we cherish them as the 
favourite gifts of life — we are as glad as the child on 
Christmas eve. These are the happiest moments of man's 
life. But when we are not noisy, not eloquent, we are silent, 
almost mute, like nature in a midsummer's night, reposing 
from the burning heat of the day. Ladies, that is my con- 
dition now. It is a hard day's work which I have had to do 
here. I am delivering my farewell address ; and every com- 
passionate smile, every warm grasp of the hand, every token 
of kindness which I have received (and I have received so 
many), every flower of consolation which the ladies of New 
York have thrown on my thorny way rushes with double force 
to my memory. I feel happy in this memory — there is a 
solemn tranquillity about my mind ; but in such a moment I 
would rather be silent than speak. You know, ladies, that it 
is not the deepest feelings which are the loudest. 

And besides, I have to say farewell to New York ! This 
is a sorrowful word. What immense hopes are linked in my 
memory with its name 1 — hopes of resurrection for my father- 
land — hopes of liberation for the European continent ! Will 



HUNGARY CHIVALROUS TO WOMEN. 99 

the expectations which the mighty outburst of New York's 
heart foreshadowed, be realized ? or will the ray of cousola- 
tion pass away like an electric flash ? Oh, could I cast one 
single glance into the book of futurity ! No, God forgive me 
this impious wish. It is He who hid the future from man, 
and what he does is well done. It were not good for man to 
know his destiny. The sense of duty would falter or be un- 
strung, if we were assured of the failure or success of our 
aims. It is because we do not know the future, that we retain 
our energy of duty. So on will I go in my work, with the 
full energy of my humble abilities, without despair, but with 
hope. 

It is Eastern blood which runs in my veins. If I have 
somewhat of Eastern fatalism, it is the fatalism of a Christian 
who trusts with unwavering faith in the boundless goodness 
of a Divine Providence. But among all these different feel- 
ings and thoughts that come upon me in the hour of my fare- 
well, one thing is almost indispensable to me, and that is, the 
assurance that the sympathy I have met with here will not 
pass away like the cheers which a warbling girl receives on 
the stage — that it will be preserved as a principle, and that 
when the emotion subsides, the calmness of reflection will but 
strengthen it. This consolation I wanted, and this consola- 
tion I have, because, ladies, I place it in your hands. I 
bestow on your motherly and sisterly cares, the hopes of 
Europe's oppressed nations, — the hopes of civil, political, 
social, and religious liberty. Oh, let me entreat you, with the 
brief and stammering words of a warm heart, overwhelmed 
with emotions and with sorrowful cares — let me entreat you, 
ladies, to be watchful of the sympathy of your people, like 
the mother over the cradle of her beloved child. It is worthy 
of your watchful care, because it is the cradle of regenerated 
humanity. 

Especially in regard to my poor fatherland, I have par- 
ticular claims on the fairer and better half of humanity, which 
you are. The fird of these claims is, that there is not 
perhaps on the face of the earth a nation, which in its insti- 
tutions has shown more chivalric regard for ladies than 
the Hungarian. It is a praiseworthy trait of the Oriental 



100 TWO WOMEN^ THE SOURCE 

character. You know that it was the Moorish race in Spain, 
who were the founders of the chivalric era in Europe, so full of 
personal virtue, so full of noble deeds, so devoted to the ser- 
vice of ladies, to heroism, and to the protection of the 
oppressed. You are told that the ladies of the East are 
degraded to less almost than a human condition, being 
secluded from all social life, and pent up within the harem's 
walls. And so it is. But you must not judge the East by 
the measure of European civilization. They have their own 
civilization, quite different from ours in views, inclinations, 
affections, and thoughts. We in Hungary have gained from 
the "West the advantages of civilization for our women, but 
we have preserved for them the regard and reverence of our 
Oriental character. Nay, more than that, we carried these 
views into our institutions and into our laws. With us, the 
widow remains the head of the family, as the father was. As 
long as she lives, she is the mistress of the property of her 
deceased husband. The chivalrous spirit of the nation sup- 
poses slie will provide, with motherly care, for the wants of 
her children ; and she remains in possession so long as she 
bears her deceased husband's name. Under the old constitu- 
tion of Hungary (which we reformed upon a democratic 
basis — it having been aristocratic) the widow of a lord had 
the right to send her representative to the parliament, and in 
the county elections of public functionaries widows had a 
right to vote alike with the men. Perhaps this chivalric cha- 
racter of my nation, so full of regard toward the fair sex, may 
somewhat commend my mission to the ladies of America. 

Our second particular claim is, that the source of all the 
misfortune which now weighs so heavily upon my bleeding 
fatherland, is in two ladies — Catharine of Eussia, and Sophia 
of Hapsburg, the ambitious mother of this second Nero, 
Erancis-Joseph. You know that one hundred and fifty years 
ago, Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, the bravest of the brave, 
foreseeing the growth of Eussia, and fearing that it would 
oppress and overwhelm civilization, ventured with a handful 
of men to attack its rising power. After immortal deeds, and 
almost fabulous victories, one loss made him a refugee upon 
Turkish soil, like myself. But, happier than myself, he sue- 



lOi 

ceeded in persuading Turkey of the necessity of eliecking 
Eussia in her overweening ambition, and curtailing her 
growth. On went Mehemet Balzordji with his Turks, and 
met Peter the Czar, and pent him up in a corner, where there 
was no possibility of escape. There Mehemet held him with 
iron grasp till hunger came to his aid. Nature claimed her 
rights, and in a council of war it was decided to surrender to 
Mehemet. Then Catharine who was present in the camp, 
appeared in person before the Grand Vizier to sue for mercy. 
She was fair, and she was rich with jewels of nameless value. 
She went to the Grand Vizier's tent. She came back without 
her jewels, but she brought mercy, and Eussia was saved. From 
that celebrated day dates the downfall of Turkey, and the 
growth of Russia. Out of this source flowed the stream of 
Eussian preponderance over the European continent. The de- 
pression of liberty, and the nameless sufferings of Poland and 
of my poor native land, are the dreadful fruits of Catharine's 
success on that day, cursed in the records of the human race. 

The second lady who wiU. be cursed through all posterity 
in her memory, is Sophia, the mother of the present usurper 
of Hungary — she who had the ambitious dream to raise the 
power of a child upon the ruins of liberty, and on the neck of 
prostrate nations. It was her ambition — the evil genius of 
the house of Hapsburg in the present day — which brought 
desolation upon us. I need only mention one fact to charac- 
terize what kind of a heart was in that woman. On the anni- 
versary of the day of Arad, where our martyrs bled, she came 
to the court with a bracelet of rubies set in so many roses as 
was the number of heads of the brave Hungarians who fell 
there, declaring that she joyfully exhibited it to the company 
as a memento which she wears on her very arm, to cherish 
in eternal memory the pleasure she derived from the killing 
of those heroes at Arad. This very fact may give you a 
true knowledge of the character of that woman, and this is 
the second claim to the ladies' sympathy for oppressed 
humanity and for my poor fatherland. 

Our third particular claim is the behaviour of our ladies 
during the last war. It is no arbitrary praise — it is a fact, 
— that, in the struggle for our rights and freedom, we had 



10.2 BEHAVIOUR OF HUNGARIAN WOMEN. 

no more powerful auxiliaries, and no more faithful executors 
of the will of the nation, than the women of Hungary. You 
know that in ancient Eome, after the battle of Cannae, which 
was won by Hannibal, the Senate called on the people spon- 
taneously to sacrifice all their wealth on the altar of their 
fatherland. Eveiy jewel, every ornament was brought forth, 
but still the tribune judged it necessary to pass a law pro- 
hibiting the ladies of Eome to wear more than half an 
ounce of gold, or particoloured splendid dresses. Now, 
we wanted in Hungary no such law. The women of 
Hungary brought all that they had. You would have been 
astonished to see how, in the most wealthy houses of 
Hungary, if you were invited to dinner, you would be forced 
to eat soup with iron spoons. When the wounded and the 
sick — and many of them we had, because we fought hard — 
when the wounded and the sick were not so well provided 
as it would have been our duty and our pleasure to do, I 
ordered the respective public functionaries to take care of 
them. But the poor wounded went on suffering, and the 
proper officers were but slow in providing for them. When 
I saw this, one single word was spoken to the ladies of 
Hungary, and in a short time there was provision made for 
hundreds of thousands of sick. And I never met a single 
mother who would have withheld her son from sharing in 
the battle ; but I have met many who ordered and com- 
manded their children to fight for their fatherland. I saw 
many and many brides who urged on the bridegrooms to 
delay their day of happiness till they should come back 
victorious from the battles of their fatherland. Thus acted 
the ladies of Hungary. A country deserves to live; a 
country deserves to have a future, when the women, as 
much as the men, love and cherish it. 

But I have a stronger motive than all these to claim your 
protecting sympathy for my country's cause. It is her 
nameless woe, nameless sufferings. In the name of that 
ocean of bloody tears which the impious hand of the tyrant 
wrung from the eyes of the childless mothers, of the brides 
who beheld the executioner's sword between them and their 
wedding day — in the name of all these mothers, wives. 



SUFFERINGS OF HUNGARY. 103 

brides, daughters, and sisters, who, by thousands of thousands^ 
weep over the graves of Magyars so dear to their hearts, — 
who weep the bloody tears of a patriot (as they all are) over 
the face of their beloved native land — in the name of all those 
torturing stripes with which the flogging hand of Austrian 
tyrants dared to outrage human nature in the womankind of 
my native land — in the name of that daily curse against 
Austria with which even the prayers of our women are 
mixed — in the name of the nameless sufferings of my 
own dear wife [here the whole audience rose and cheered 
vehemently] — the faithful companion of my life, — of her, 
who for months and for months was hunted by my country's 
tyrants, with no hope, no support, no protection but at 
the humble threshold of the hard-working people, as noble 
and generous as they are poor — in the name of my poor 
little children, who when so young as to be scarcely conscious 
of life, had already to learn what an Austrian prison is — in 
the name of all this, and what is still worse, in the name 
of liberty trodden down, I claim, ladies of New York, your 
protecting sympathy for my country's cause. Nobody can 
do more for it than you. The heart of man is as soft wax in 
your tender hands. Mould it, ladies ; mould it into the form 
of generous compassion for my country's wrongs, inspire it 
with the noble feelings of your own hearts, inspire it with 
the consciousness of your country's power, dignity, and 
might. You are the framers of man's character. Whatever 
be the fate of man, one stamp he always bears on his brow — 
that which the mother's hand impressed upon the soul of the 
child. The smile of your lips can make a hero out of the 
coward, and a generous man out of the egotist ; one word 
from you inspires the youth to noble resolutions ; the lustre 
of your eyes is the fairest reward for the toils of life. 
You can kindle energy even in the breast of broken age, 
that once more it may blaze up in a noble generous deed 
before it dies. All this power you have. Use it, ladies, 
in behalf of your country's glory, and for the benefit of 
oppressed humanity, and when you meet a cold calculator, 
who thinks by arithmetic when he is called to feel the 
wrongs of oppressed nations, convert him, ladies. Your 



104 POWER OF WOMEN, 

smiles are commands, and the truth which pours forth 
instinctively from your hearts, is mightier than the logic 
articulated by any scholar. The Peri excluded from Paradise, 
brought many generous gifts to heaven in order to regain it. 
She brought the dying sigh of a patriot ; the kiss of a faithful 
girl imprinted upon the lips of her bridegroom, when they 
were distorted by the venom of the plague. She brought 
many other fair gifts; but the doors of Paradise opened 
before her only when she brought with her the first prayer 
of a man converted to charity and brotherly love for his 
oppressed brethren and humanity. 

Eemember the power which you have, and Avhich I have 
endeavoured to point out in a few brief words. Eemember 
this, and form associations ; establish ladies' committees to 
raise substantial aid for Hungary. Now I have done. One 
word only remains to be said — a word of deep sorrow, the 
word, '' Parewell, New York ! " New York ! that word will 
for ever make every string of my heart thrill. I am like a wan- 
dering bird. I am worse than a wandering bird. He may 
return to his summer home, I have no home on earth ! Here 
I felt almost at home. But " Forward " is my call, and I 
must part. I part with the hope that the sympathy which 
I have met here in a short transitory home will bring me yet 
back to my own beloved home, so that my ashes may yet mix 
with the dust of my native soil. Ladies^ remember Hungary, 
and — farewell ! 



Xiy.— EESULTS OF THE OYEETHEOW OF THE FEENCH 
EEPUBLIC. 

[^S^eech at the Citizens^ Banquet, FMladelphia, Dee, 2Qth,'] 

Mr. Dallas, the Chairman, made an eloquent address, 
advocating the cause of Hungary against Eussia, and avowing 
the duty of America to give warlike aid. This speech was 
the more remarkable, as coming immediately after the arrival 
of the news of Louis Napoleon's usurpation. The mind of 
the public was naturally so full of the event, that Kossuth 



WHO ARE APOSTLES OF COMMUNISM? 105 

could not avoid to discuss it; but the topic is so thread- 
bare to the English, that it will suffice here to preserve a few 
sentiments. 

In the opening, Kossuth complained of forged letters and 
forged cheques sent to annoy him, and anonymous letters of 
false accusation circulated against him. Proceeding from 
this to public topics, and the certainty of a new convulsion 
in Europe, he said, that it might prove in the future highly 
dangerous to the moneyed interests, if the world be per- 
suaded that the holders of great disposable wealth use it to 
aid despotism, and that the possession of it checks the 
generous propensity to forward the triumph of freedom. If 
the world be confirmed in this persuasion, the results will 
be painfully felt by those gentlemen, whose treasures are 
always open for the despots to crush liberty with. Such 
money-lenders have excited boundless hatred in all that 
section of Europe, which has had to suffer from their ready 
financial aid to despotism. 1 (said Kossuth) am no Socialist, 
no Communist ; and if I get the means to act efficiently, I 
shall SO act that the inevitable resolution may not subvert 
the rights of property : but so much I confidently declare — 
that to the spreading of Communist doctrines in certain 
quarters of Europe nobody has so much contributed as those 
European capitalists, who by incessantly aiding the despots 
with their money have inspired many of the oppressed with 
the belief that financial wealth is dangerous to the freedom 
of the world. Eothschild is the most efficient apostle of 
Communism. 

In regard to Louis Bonaparte's temporary success, Kossuth 
argued, that it would secure, when Erance makes her next 
move for freedom, two results beneficial to liberty : First, 
that in future, the French republicans would abandon their 
delusive and disastrous Centralization. We have shown 
(said he) in Hungary, that for a nation to be invincible, its 
life must not be bound up with its metropolis. Hence- 
forward, in European aspirations, centralization is replaced 
by federative harmony. I thank Louis Napoleon for it. 
Your principles of local self-government, gentlemen, were 
hitherto professed on the continent of Europe chiefly by us 

5 § 



106 THE U.S., NOT FRANCE, HENCEFORTH 

Hungarians : now tliey will conquer the world, — a new victory 
for humanity. Had the old French republic stood, it would 
have perpetuated the curse of great standing ar^mies, which 
are instiniments of ambition and a wasting pestilence. Again ; 
the blow struck by Louis Napoleon has forced his nation into 
the common destiny of Europe. It has forbidden France 
ever in future to play a separate game, and think to keep her 
own liberty, without effectively espousing the cause of foreign 
liberty. 

What is the sum of all this ? First, that there is nothing 
in the news from France to alter any judgments which you 
might previously have formed, or cause you any suspense. 
Secondly, it only more than ever claims from you an im- 
mediately decisive conduct. The success of freedom now 
depends entirely on what policy the United States of America 
will adopt. 

Well ! gentlemen. It may be that the United States have 
no reply to the hopes of the world. You will then see a 
mournful tear in the eye of humanity, and its breast heaving 
with sighs. We presume, you are so powerful that you 
can afford not to care about the treading down of the law 
of nations and the funeral of European freedom. You are 
so glorious at home, that you can afford to lose the glory 
(at so rare a crisis !) of saving liberty and justice on earth. 
Y"et in your own hour of trial you asked and received military 
and naval aid from France. Your President has informed 
the world, that you are not willing to allow " the strong 
arm of a foreign power to suppress the spirit of freedom 
in any country." If after this you tell me that you are 
afraid of Russia, and are too weak to help us, — and would 
rather be on good terms with the Czar, than rejoice in 
the liberty and independence of Hungary, Italy, Germany, 
France, — dreadful as it would be, I would wipe away my 
tear, and say to my brethren, "Let us pray, and let us 
go to the Lord's Last Supper, and thence to battle and to 
death." I would then leave you, gentlemen, with a dying 
farewell, and with a prayer that the sun of freedom may 
never drop below the horizon of your happy land. 

I am in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, the city 



ARE THE MODEL REPUBLIC. 107 

of William Penn, whose likeness I saw this day in a histoiy 
of your city, with this motto under it : '* Si vis pacem, 
para helium' — (prepare for war if thou wilt have peace) — a 
weighty memento, gentlemen, to the name of William Penn. 

And I am in that city which is the cradle of your inde- 
pendence — where, in the hour of your need, the appeal was 
proclaimed to the Law of Nature's God, and that appeal 
for help from Europe, which was granted to you. 

I stood in Independence Hall, whence the spirit of freedom 
lisps eternal words of history to the secret recesses of your 
hearts. Man may well be silent where from such a place 
history so speaks. So my task is done — with me the pain, 
with you the decision — and, let me add the prophetic words 
of the poet, '' the moral of the strain." 

Kossuth took his seat amid the three times three of the 
audience. 



XY.— INTEEEST OF AMEEICA IN HUNGAEIAN 
LIBEETY. 

[Baltimorey Dec, 27th.'] 

On the 27th December Kossuth reached Baltimore, and 
was met by an immense concourse of citizens and a long line 
of military, who escorted him to his quarters with much en- 
thusiastic demonstration. In the evening he addressed the 
citizens in the Hall of the Maryland Institute, which was 
densely crowded, great numbers standing outside the building, 
when unable to get admittance. 

After an apologetic introduction, Kossuth proceeded to 
say:— 

Gentlemen ! It is gratifying to me to receive this spon- 
taneous welcome. I was already grateful, during my stay in 
New York, to receive the expression of your sentiments, and 
your generous resolutions. They become the more beneficial to 
me, because I am on my way and very near to Washington 
City, where the elected of your national confidence stand in 
their proud position, as conservators of those lofty interests, 



108 ISOLATION FROM CHRISTENDOM. 

which bind your thirty-one stars of Sovereign States into one 
mighty constellation of Freedom, Power, and Right ; where 
the Congress and Government of this vast Republic watch 
over the common weal of your united country, and hereby 
make you a Power on earth, a fullgrown member of that 
great Family of Nations, which, having One Father in heaven, 
are brethren, and should act as brethren. 
P Among the interests entrusted by you to the Congress and 
Government, jowx foreign policy is nearly the most important. 
This, in a great and powerful nation, can have no other basis 
than Eternal Law and Christian Morality. Even your pecu- 
liar interests are, in my belief, best served, when your foreign 
policy rests, not on transitory considerations, but on everlast- 
ing principles. Even in private life "no man can entirely 
cut himself ofp from others. A man willing to attempt it 
would be an exile in his own country, an exile in his own 
city, an exile in his family. Just so with nations, which in 
the larger family of man are individual members. If a 
nation seclude itself, it is an exile in the midst of humanity. 
No man, ladies and gentlemen, is independent of his fellow- 
man : no nation, however powerful, is independent of other 
nations. Put the richest, the strongest man for a single 
week w^hoUy apart from family, city, country, and he will 
quickly learn his essential weakness. In a nation, the con- 
sequence of total isolation is not felt as soon, but it wiU at 
length be felt as surely. The hours of nations are counted 
by years; yet the secluded nation, self-exiled from man- 
kind, dwindles away. Woe to the people, whose citizens 
care only for their own present, and not for the future of 
their country! the future, in which they have to live im- 
mortally by children and children's children, with whose 
glory and happiness and power they ought now to sym- 
pathize. Men or nations secluded are like the silk-worm, 
which secretes itself in a self-woven case, and at length 
creeps out to die. So will it at length be with the nation 
which is wrapped up in self. 

It is one of your glories, that some portions of your 
united republic are farther from other portions than Hungary 
is from Baltimore : mere distance is therefore no reason why 



IMPOSSIBLE TO AMERICA. 109 

you should be unconcerned about our fate. You are not too 
far for commercial intercourse with the most distant coasts 
of Europe ; and especially since the invention of one of your 
citizens has been brought to higher perfection, the ocean 
rather unites you to us, than separates you. Would you 
have the advantages of the connection, without the duties 
which spring out of it? Disregard of duty sooner or later 
kills advantage. I need not remind you w^hat a link of 
nature, blood, language, science, industry, religion, civiliza- 
tion, exists between you and us, and binds us ever tighter. 
You cannot help feeling at home our condition in Europe. 
Our peace or war, our civilization or barbarism, our freedom 
or oppression, our wealth or starvation, progress or retro- 
gression, must act upon you, just as your condition reacts 
upon us. The link between the destinies of Christendom 
cannot be cut asunder. In fact, there never yet was a time 
when Europe more demanded that you should have some 
policy towards it ; and indifference is none at all. At this 
moment it is under universal oppression of social, political^ 
and religious liberty, — the three treasures which make your 
glory and happiness. This oppression is ordered by Eussia, 
and executed by her satellites. The elected President of 
France has impiously stabbed the constitution, to make him- 
self Emperor. The Austrian Ministry has openly declared 
that the absolutist powers will maintain him. Thus the 
impulse of revolution has been given ; its vibration will be 
felt throughout Europe and in my fatherland. Never will 
you have an opportunity more glorious for you, and more 
favourable to mankind, for adopting a real policy founded 
upon principles. 

The people of Hungary have abundant motives to risk life 
for freedom and independence. Once we had a nationality ; 
now we have none. Once we had a constitution ; — by the 
blessing of God we succeeded to transform it three years ago 
from an aristocratic to a democratic one; — now Hungary 
has no constitution at all. Eor a thousand years we were a 
free people ; we are now so no longer. Like a flock of sheep, 
we are appropriated,/not by the Austrian empire, not by the 
nation, but by a despotic ambitious family. We had freedom 



110 MOTIVES FOR INSURRECTION. 

of the press. Not nineteen years ago, I began the struggle, 
and endured three years imprisonment for it ; but we won 
that great right of mankind — free expression of thought. 
Now there is no press at all in Hungary ; there is only the 
hangman and martial law. We established equal protection 
for every religion; now there is equal oppression for all. 
The Protestant Church had its own self- government for its 
churches and schools, won by victorious arms and secured 
by a hundred laws ; now the laws are torn down, and the 
freedom of church and school is gone. The Catholic Church 
had control of its own estates ; now, day by day, the nearly 
bankrupt Austrian government is overgrowing that property 
by the poisonous weeds of a new loan, on which it vegetates, 
a curse to every nation on the continent. Such is the con- 
dition of the Catholic church, concerning which I — a Pro^ 
testant, not only by birth, but also by conviction — declare, 
that during a whole life-time, when Hungary was struggling 
for religious liberty, that Church contended in the foremost 
rank for the rights of us Protestants. So much do we value 
the freedom of conscience, that the very thought was re- 
pugnant to us all, that there should be unequal rights of 
citizenship between Protestants and Catholics and professors 
of the Faith of Moses. Zeal for religious freedom will kindle 
Magyars to struggle, as long as there is blood in our veins. 
As during three centuries, so the late war was for religious 
independence as well as civil ; indeed, still earlier, we were 
the barrier of Christendom against the invading Mahommedan. 
We succeeded lately in freeing the agriculture of Hungary, 
and transforming peasants into freeholders; now the Austrian 
dynasty is stealthily bringing back feudal rights. In freeing 
the peasants, we provided for indemnification of landlords ; 
Austria taxes the peasants very heavily, and does not (for 
she cannot) indemnify the landlords; because her violence 
and wastefulness does not know how to turn our public 
estates to account. She favours a few landlords only, who 
are faithful tools of her oppression. During our struggle, 
we issued paper-money, — it was called the Kossuth-bank- 
note ; Austria disavowed it, and commanded its surrender, 
yet twenty millions are firmly held by the people, as valuable 



SHALL EUROPE BE COSSACK? Ill 

after a new revolution. Before we fell under the stroke of 
Eussian interference, the taxation permitted by our Parlia- 
ment was only four and a half millions of dollars ; Austria now 
imposes sixty. Our people burn their tobacco-seed and cut 
down their vines, rather than endure her tax. Such are the 
motives which Austria gives to Hungary not to make a new 
revolution ! There is not a single interest which she has not 
mortally wounded. The mind, the heart, dignity, conscience, 
self-esteem, hatred, love, revenge, besides every material 
interest of every class, is engaged to the struggle. 

The oppression of Hungary has ratified the oppression of 
all our continent. Since she has fallen, Italy has been 
completely "crushed, the moderate freedom of Germany has 
been put down by Austria with the support of Eussia; 
lastly, the usurpation of Louis Napoleon has been made 
possible. Without the restoration of Hungary Europe 
cannot be freed from Eussian thraldom; under which 
nationalities are erased, no freedom is possible, all religions 
are subjected to like slavery. Gentlemen! the Emperor 
Napoleon spoke a prophetic word, when he said that in fifty 
years all Europe would be either republican or Cossack. 
Hungary once free, Europe is republican; Hungary per- 
manently crushed, all Europe is Cossack. And what does 
Hungary need for freedom ? Not that other nations should 
fight our proper battle against our immediate oppressor. 
We have hearts loving freedom and ready to shed their blood 
for it ; we have armies fully equal to Austria, we want only 
" FAIR PLAY." Let the United States feel itself to be as it "^ 
is, a Power on earth, bound to aid in the police of the 
nations, and in the name of violated right let it say to the 
Eussian intruder, "Keep back, hands off, let the brave 
Magyars fight their own battle, elsewQ must take their part." 
For centuries, perhaps, you will have no more glorious 
opportunity than now. Hitherto, the word Glory has been 
connected with conquest and oppression. Take the New 
Glory for yours, by assuring to all nations exemption from 
the conspiracy of tyrants. That is what I first humbly 
request and hope. ~ " ^j 

[Kossuth proceeded, as in former speeches, to explain his 



112 AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS. 

other requests, viz. secondly^ free commerce with America, 
whether Hungary was in war with Austria or not ; thirdly, 
that when the suitable moment arrived, the Government 
should recognize the legitimate character of the Declaration 
of Independence made by Hungary in May, 1849. He 
added] : — 

These requests I have very often explained since I have 
had the honour to be in the United States. I explained 
them yesterday in Philadelphia — the cradle of your Declara- 
tion of Independence. There I was answered, not only by 
the unanimous adoption of these resolutions on the part of 
the city of Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, but also 
by the people of Philadelphia, at a great and important 
meeting. Nor was that enough. I received more in Phila- 
delphia. I was told that, besides the granting of these my 
humble requests, whenever war breaks out for Hungary's 
freedom and independence I shall find brave hearts and stout 
arms among the twenty-four millions of the people of the 
United States ready to go over to Europe and fight side by 
side in the great battle for the freedom and independence of 
the European continent. I was told that it was not possible, 
when the battle for mankind's liberty is fought, for the sword 
of Washington to rest in its scabbard. That sword, which 
struck the first blow here on this continent for the republican 
freedom of this great country, must be present there, where 
the last stroke for all humanity will be given. Now, gentle- 
men, I will not abuse your kind indulgence and patience, 
which you have bestowed in your crowded situation. I wiU 
only say, that should this be the generous will of the people 
of the United States, in the name of the honour of my nation 
I can give the assurance that the Hungarians will be found 
worthy to fight side by side with you for civil and political 
freedom on the European continent, and to take care, with 
the sword of Washington, that no hair of that lock which 
I received as a present in Philadelphia, and which I promised 
to attach to that very standard which I will bear to decide 
the victory against despotism — that no hair of that lock shall 
fall into the hands of tyrants. And now may the ladies who 
have honoured me with their presence graciously allow me to 



HARRISBURG RESOLUTIONS. 113 

express to them my most humble thanks and one humble 
prayer. The destinies of mankind — the future of humanity — 
repose in the hands of womanhood. The mark which the 
mother imprints upon the brow of the child remains for his 
whole life. Ladies of the United States, when the wandering 
exile passes away from your presence, take to your kind care 
the great cause of the liberty of the world with the tenderness 
with which a mother takes care of her child ; and when you 
take care of this great cause, the sympathy of the people of 
the United States will not vanish like the passing emotion of 
the heart, but will become substantial, active, and eifectual. 

The speaker then took his seat, with three times three from 
the audience. 

Judge Legrand followed, and proposed the Harrisburg re- 
solutions, which were adopted. They are as annexed : — 

Eesolved, — That the citizens of Harrisburg, the seat of 
government of Pennsylvania, in town meeting assembled, 
hereby approve and endorse the three propositions promul- 
gated by Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, in his great 
speech before the Mayor and authorities of the city of New 
York, viz. : — 

"First. Thatfeeling interested in the maintenance of the laws 
of nations, acknowledging the sovereign right of every people 
to dispose of its own domestic concerns to be one of the 
laws, and the interference with this sovereign right to be a 
violation of these laws of nations, the people of the United 
States — resolved to respect and to make respected these public 
laws — declares the Eussian past intervention in Hungary to 
be a violation of these laws, which, if reiterated, would be a 
new violation, and would not be regarded indiiferently by the 
people of the United States. 

*' Second. That the people of the United States are resolved 
to maintain its right of commercial intercourse with the 
nations of Europe, whether they be in a state of revolution 
against their government or not ; and that, with the view of 
approaching scenes on the continent of Europe, the people 
invite the government to take appropriate measures for the 
protection of the trade of the people with the Mediterranean. 



114 TOASTS AND RESOLUTIONS 

'' Third, That the people of the United States should 
declare their opinion in respect to the question of the Inde- 
pendence of Hungary, and urge the government to act accord- 
ingly." 

Eesolved, That the people of Hungary are, and ought to 
remain a free and independent nation ; that Louis Kossuth 
is their lawful govenor, and that the Hungarian people should 
not be prevented from exercising the rights of freemen by 
the tyranny of Austria and Eussia. 

Eesolved, That we extend to Louis Kossuth, Governor of 
Hungary, and the Hungarian nation, that has made such a 
noble stand in the cause of freedom, that sympathy, aid, and 
support, which freemen alone know how to grant. 

Eesolved, That a committee of fifteen, including the officers 
of this meeting, be appointed to repair to Philadelphia, and 
invite the Governor of Hungaiy to visit the capital of Penn- 
sylvania at such times as may suit his convenience. 



XYI.~NOYELTIES IN AMERICAN REPUBLICANISM. 

jrr [Washington Banquet, Jan. ith, 1852.] 

7 

' The Banquet given by a large number of the Members of 

the two Houses of Congress to Kossuth took place at the 
National Hotel, in Washington City. The number present 
was about two hundred and fifty. The Hon. Wm. E. King, 
of Alabama, President of the Senate, presided. On his right 
sat Louis Kossuth, and on his left the Hon. Daniel Webster, 
Secretary of State. On the right of Kossuth at the same 
table, sat the Hon. Linn Boyd, Speaker of the House of 
Eepresentatives. Besides other distinguished guests who 
responded to toasts, are named Hon. Thomas Corwin, Secre* 
tary of the Treasury, and Hon. Alex. H. H. Stuart, Secretary 
of the Interior. 

A few minutes after eight o'clock, a large number of ladies 
were admitted, and the President of the Senate requested 
gentlemen to fill their glasses for the first toast, which was, 

" The President of the United States." 



AT THE WASHINGTON BANQUET. 115 

To this, Mr. Webster responded. 
The President then announced the second toast : 

" The Judiciaet op the United States : The expounder of 
the Constitution and the bulwark of Jiberty, regulated by law.'* 

Judge Wayne, of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
replied, and after alluding to *' The distinguished stranger " 
who was then among them, said : I give you, gentlemen, as 
a sentiment : 

" Constitutional liberty to all the nations of the earth, supported 
by Christian faith and the morahty of the Bible." 

The toast was received with enthusiastic applause. 
The third toast was, — 

" The Navy oe the United States : The home squadron every- 
where. Its glory was illustrated, when its flag in a foreign sea gave 
liberty and protection to the Hungarian Chief." 

Mr. Stanton, of Tennessee, in his reply, said : — 

But recently, Mr. President, a new significance has been given to 
this flag. Heretofore, the navy has been the symbol of OTir power 
and the emblem of our Liberty, but now it speaks of humanity and 
of a noble sympathy for the oppressed of aU nations. The home 
squadron everyiohere, to give protection to the brave and to those 
who may have fallen in the cause of freedom ! Your acquiescence 
in that sentiment indicates the profound sympathy of the people of 
the United States for the people of Hungary, manifested in the 
person of their great chief; and I can conceive of no duty that 
would be more acceptable to the gallant officers of the navy of the 
United States except one, and that is, to strike a blow for liberty/ 
themselves in a just cause, approved by our Government. 

The fourth toast was, — 

"The Aemy oe the United States. In saluting the illus- 
trious Exile with magnanimous courtesy, as high as it could pay to 
any Power on earth, it has added grace to the glory of its history." 

General Shields, Senator for Illinois, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Military Affairs in the Senate, being loudly called 
for, replied in the necessary absence of General Scott, the 
chief of the army ; and after an appropriate acknowledgment 
of the toast, added : 

In paying this very high honor to our illustrious guest — this 
noble Himgarian — let me observe that that army which has been 



116 CONTRASTS OF THE OLD ROMAN 

toasted to-night spoke for his reception by the voice of their cannon ; 
and the cannon that spoke there spoke the voice of twenty-five 
millions of people. Su% that salute which the American cannon gave 
the Hungarian exile had a deep meaning in it. It was not a salute 
to the mere man Louis Kossuth, but it was a salute in favour of the 
great principle wliich he represents — the principle which he advocates, 
the principle of nationaHty and of human hberty. Sir, I was born in 
a land which has sufiered as an oppressed nation. I am now a citizen 
of a land wliich would have sufiered from the same power, had it not 
been for the bravery, gallantry, and good fortune of the men of that 
time. Sir, as an Irishman by birth, and an American by adoption, 
I would feel myself a traitor to both countries if I did not sustain 
down-trodden nationalities everywhere — in Hungary, in Poland, in 
Germany, in Italy — everywhere where man is trodden down and 
oppressed. And, sir, I say again, that that army which maintained 
itself in three wars against one of the greatest and most powerful 
nations of the world, will, if the trying time should come again, 
maintain that same flag (the stars and stripes) and the same triumph, 
and the same victories in the cause of hberty. [Great applause.] 

The president of the evening then, after a cordial speech, 
proposed the fifth toast : 

" HuNGAET, represented in the person of our honoured Guest, 
having proved herself worthy to be free by the virtues and valour of 
her sons, the law of nations and the dictates of justice alike demand 
that she shall have fau' play in her struggle for independence." 

This toast was received with immense applause, which 
lasted several minutes. 

Kossuth then rose and spoke as follows : 
. y Sir : As once Cineas the Epirote stood among the Sena- 
tors of Eome, who, with a word of self-conscious majesty, 
arrested kings in their ambitious march— thus, full of admi- 
ration and of reverence, I stand amongst you, legislators of 
the new Capitol, that glorious hall of your people's collective 
majesty. The Capitol of old yet stands, but the spirit has 
departed from it, and is come over to yours, purified by the 
air of liberty. The old stands, a mournful monument of the 
fragility of human things : yours as a sanctuary of eternal 
right. The old beamed with the red lustre of conquest, now 
darkened by the gloom of oppression ; yours is bright with 
freedom. The old absorbed the world into its own centralized 
glory ; yours protects your own nation from being absorbed, 



TO THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 117 

even by itself. The old was awful with unrestricted power ; 
yours is glorious by having restricted it. At the view of the 
old, nations trembled ; at the view of yours, humanity hopes. 
To the old, misfortune was introduced with fettered hands to 
kneel at triumphant conquerors' feet : to yours the triumph 
of introduction is granted to unfortunate exiles who are 
invited to the honour of a seat. And where Kings and Csesars 
never will be hailed for their power and wealth, there the 
persecuted chief of a downtrodden nation is welcomed as your 
great Eepublic's guest, precisely because he is persecuted, 
helpless, and poor. In the old, the terrible vce victis ! was 
the rule : in yours, protection to the oppressed, malediction 
to ambitious oppressors, and consolation to a vanquished just 
cause. And while from the old a conquered world was ruled, 
you in yours provide for the common federative interests of 
a territory larger than that old conquered Avorld. There sat 
men boasting that their will was sovereign of the earth ; here 
sit men whose glory is to acknowledge '' the laws of nature 
and of nature's God," and to do what their sovereign, the 
People, wills. .^ 

Sir, there is history in these contrasts. History of past 
ages and history of future centuries may be often recorded in 
small facts. The particulars to which the passion of living 
mendings, as if human fingers could arrest the wheel of Des- 
tiny, these particulars die away ; it is the issue which makes 
history, and that issue is always coherent with its causes. 
There is a necessity of consequences wherever the necessity 
of position exists. Principles are the alpha: they must 
finish with omega, and they will. Thus history may be often 
told in a few words. - «~i 

Before the heroic struggle of Greece had yet engaged your 
country's sympathy for the fate of freedom, in Europe then 
so far distant and now so near, Chateaubriand happened to 
be in Athens, and he heard from a minaret raised upon the 
Propyleeum's ruins a Turkish, priest in the Arabic language 
announcing the lapse of hours to the Christians of Minerva's 
town. What immense history there was in the small fact of 
a Turkish Imaum crying out, ''Pray, pray ! the hour is run- 
ning fast, and the judgment draws near." 



118 HISTORY CONDENSED IN INDIVIDUALISMS. 

Sir, there is equally a history of future ages written in the 
honour bestowed by you on my humble self. The first 
Governor of Independent Hungary, driven from his native 
land by Eussian violence ; an exile on Turkish soil, protected 
by a Mahommedan Sultan from the blood-thirst of Christian 
tyrants ; cast back a prisoner to far Asia by diplomacy ; was 
at length rescued from his Asiatic prison, when America 
crossed the Atlantic, charged with the hopes of Europe's 
oppressed nations. He pleads, as a poor exile, before the 
people of this great Republic, his country's wrongs and its 
intimate connection with the fate of the European continent, 
and, in the boldness of a just cause, claims that the principles 
of the Christian religion be raised to a law of nations. To 
see that not only is the boldness of the poor exile forgiven, 
but that he is consoled by the sympathy of millions, en- 
couraged by individuals, associations, meetings, cities, and 
States ; supported by effective aid and greeted by Congress 
and by Government as the nation^s guest ; honoured, out of 
generosity, with that honour which only one man before him 
received (a man who had deserved them from your gratitude), 
with honours such as no potentate ever can receive, and this 
banquet here, and the toast which I have to thank you for : — 
oh ! indeed, sir, there is a history of future ages in all these 
facts ! They will go down to posterity as the proper con- 
sequences of great principles. 

Sii', though I have a noble pride in my principles, and the 
inspiration of a just cause, still I have also the consciousness 
of my personal insignificance. Never will I forget what is 
due from me to the Sovereign Source of my public capacity. 
This I owe to my nation's dignity ; and therefore, respectfully 
thanking this highly distinguished assembly in my country's 
name, I have the boldness to say that Hungary well deserves 
your sympathy; that Hungary has a claim to protection, because 
it has a claim to justice. But as to myself, I am well aware 
that in all these honours I have no personal share. Nay, I 
know that even that which might seem to be personal in your 
toast, is only an acknowledgment of a historical fact, very 
instructively connected with a principle valuable and dear to 
every republican heart in the United States of America. As 



HUNGARIANS NEVER DYNASTICAL. 119 

to ambition, I indeed never was able to understand how any- 
body can love ambition more than liberty. But I am glad 
to state a historical fact, as a principal demonstration of that 
influence which institutions exercise upon the character of 
nations. 

We Hungarians are very fond of the principle of municipal 
self-government, and we have a natural horror against 
centralization. That fond attachment to municipal self- 
government, without which there is no provincial freedom 
possible, is a fundamental feature of our national character J 
We brought it with us from far Asia a thousand years ago, 
and we preserved it throughout the vicissitudes of ten cen- 
turies. No nation has perhaps so much struggled and^ 
suffered for the civilized Christian world as we. We do not 
complain of this lot. It may be heavy, but it is not in- 
glorious. Where the cradle of our Saviour stood, and where 
His divine doctrine was founded, there now another faith 
rules : the whole of Europe's armed pilgrimage could not 
avert this fate from that sacred spot, nor stop the rushing 
waves of Islamism from absorbing the Christian empire of 
Const antine. We stopped those rushing waves. The 
breast of my nation proved a breakwater to them. We 
guarded Christendom, that Luthers and Calvins might f 
reform it. It was a dangerous time, and its dangers often"*" 
placed the confidence of all my nation into one man's hand. 
But there was not a single instance in our history where a 
man honoured by his people's confidence deceived them for 
his own ambition. The man out of whom Eussian diplomacy 
succeeded in making a murderer of his nation's hopes, gained 
some factories when victories were the chief necessity of the 
moment, and at the head of an army, circumstances gave him 
the ability to ruin his country ; but he never had the people's 
confidence. So even he is no contradiction to the historical 
truth, that no Hungarian whom his nation honoured with its 
confidence was ever seduced by ambition to become dangerous 
to his country's liberty. That is a remarkable fact, and yet 
it is not accidental ; it springs from the proper influence of 
institutions upon the national character. Our nation, through 
all its histoiy, was educated in the school of local self- 



120 CENTRALIZATION DYNA*STICAL. 

government; and in sncli a country, grasping ambition 
having no field, has no place in man's ^character. 

The truth of this doctrine becomes yet more illustrated 
by a quite contrary historical fact in France. Whatever have 
been the changes of government in that great country — and 
many they have been, to be sure — we have seen a Convention, 
a Directorate, Consuls, and one Consul, and an Emperor, 
and the Eestoration, and the Citizen King, and the Eepublic ; 
through all these different experiments centralization was the 
keynote of the institutions of France — power always cen- 
tralized; omnipotence always vested somewhere. And, re- 
markable indeed, France has never yet raised one single man 
to the seat of power, who has not sacrificed his country's free- 
dom to his personal ambition ! 

It is sorrowful indeed, but it is natural. It is in the 
garden of centralization that the venomous plant of ambition 
thrives. I dare confidently affirm, that in your great country 
there exists not a single man through whose brains has ever 
passed the thought, that he would wish to raise the seat of 
his ambition upon the ruins of your country's liberty, if he 
could. Such a wish is impossible in the United States. 

' Institutions react upon the character of nations. He who 
sows wind will reap storm. History is the revelation of 
Providence. The Almighty rules by eternal laws not only 
the material but also the moral world ; and as every law is a 
principle, so every principle is a law. Men as well as nations 
are endowed with free-will to choose a principle, but, that 

. once chosen, the consequences must be accepted. 

p With self-government is freedom, and with freedom is 

' justice and patriotism. With centralization is ambition, and 
with ambition dwells despotism. Happy your great country, 
sir, for being so warmly attached to that great principle of 
self-government. Upon this foundation your fathers raised 
a home to freedom more glorious than the world has ever 
seen. Upon this foundation you have developed it to a 
living wonder of the world. Happy your great country, sir ! 
that it was selected by the blessing of the Lord to prove the 
glorious practicability of a federative union of many sovereign 
States, all preserving their State-rights and their self-govern- 



FEDERALISM TRIUMPHANT, 121 

ment, and yet united in one — every star beaming with its own 
lustre, but all together one constellation on mankind's canopy. 

Upon this foundation your free country has grown to al 
prodigious power in a surprizingly brief period, a power 
which attracts by its fundamental principle. You have con- 
quered by it more in seventy-five years than Eome by arms 
in centuries. Your principles will conquer the world. By 
the glorious example of your freedom, welfare, and security, 
mankind is about to become conscious of its aim. The 
lesson you give to humanity will not be lost. The respect 
for State-rights in the Federal Government of America, and 
in its several States, will become an instructive example for 
universal toleration, forbearance, and justice to the future 
States and Eepublics of Europe. Upon this basis those 
mischievous questions of language-nationalities will be got 
rid of, which cunning despotism has raised in Europe to 
murder liberty. Smaller States will find security in the prin- 
ciple of federative union, while they will preserve their national 
freedom by the principle of sovereign self-government ; and 
while larger States, abdicating the principle of centralization, 
will cease to be a blood-field to unscrupulous usurpation and a 
tool to the ambition of wicked men, municipal institutions 
will ensure the development of local elements ; freedom, for- 
merly an abstract political theory, will be brought to eyerj 
municipal hearth; and out of the welfare and contentment of all 
parts will flow happiness, peace, and security for the whole. _J 

That is my confident hope. Then will the fluctuations of 
Germany's fate at once subside. It will become the heart of 
Europe, not by melting North Germany into a Southern 
frame, or the South into a Northern; not by absorbing 
historical peculiarities into a centralized omnipotence; not 
by mixing all in one State, but by federating several sovereign 
States into a Union like yours. 

Upon a similar basis will take place the national regenera- 
tion of Sclavonic States, and not upon the sacrilegious idea 
of Panslavism, which means the omnipotence of the Czar. 
Upon a similar basis shall we see fair Italy independent and 
free. Not unity, but union will and must become the watch- 
word of national members, hitherto torn rudely asunder by 

6 



122 NEED OF ^^FAIR PLAY/^ 

provincial rivalries, out of which a crowd of despots and 
common servitude arose. In truth it will be a noble joy to 
your great Eepublic to feel that the moral influence of your 
glorious example has worked this happy development in 
mankind's destiny; nor have I the slightest doubt of the 
efficacy of that example. 

But there is one thing indispensable to it, without which 
there is no hope for this happy issue. It is, that the op- 
pressed nations of Europe become the masters of their future, 
free to regulate their own domestic concerns. And to this 
nothing is wanted but to have that "fair play" to all, /or all, 
which you, sir, in your toast, were pleased to pronounce as a 
right of my nation, alike sanctioned by the law of nations as 
by the dictates of eternal justice. Without this "fair play" 
there is no hope for Europe — no hope of seeing your prin- 
ciples spread. 

Yours is a happy country, gentlemen. You had more than 
fair play. You had active and effectual aid from Europe 
in your struggle for independence, which, once achieved, 
you used so wisely as to become a prodigy of freedom and 
welfare, and a lesson of life to nations. 

But we in Europe — we, unhappily, have no such fair play. 
With us, against every pulsation of liberty all despots are 
united in a common league ; and you may be sure that 
despots will never yield to the moral influence of your great 
example. They hate the very existence of this example. It 
is the sorrow of their thoughts, and the incubus of their 
dreams. To stop its moral influence abroad, and to check 
its spread at home, is what they wish, instead of yielding to 
its influence. 

We shall have no fair play. The Cossack already rules, 
by Louis Napoleon's usurpation, to the very borders of the 
Atlantic Ocean. One of your great statesmen— now, to my 
deep sorrow, bound to the sick bed of far advanced age * — 
(alas ! that I am deprived of the advice which his wisdom 
could have imparted to me) — your great statesman told the 
world thirty years ago that Paris was transferred to St. 
Petersburg. What would he now say, when St. Petersburg 

* Henry Clay, since deceased. 



FAILURE OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS. 123 

is transferred to Paris, and Europe is but an appendage to 
Eussia ? 

Alas ! Europe can no longer secure to Europe fair play. 
England only remains ; but even England casts a sorrowful 
glance over the waves. Still, we will stand our ground, 
" sink or swim, live or die." You know the word ; it is 
your own. We will follow it ; it will be a bloody path to 
tread. Despots have conspired against the world. Terror 
spreads over Europe, and persecutes by way of anticipation. 
From Paris to Pesth there is a gloomy silence, like the 
silence of nature before the terrors of a hurricane. It is a 
sensible silence, disturbed only by the thousandfold rattling 
of muskets by which Napoleon prepares to crush the people 
who gave him a home when he was an exile, and by the 
groans of new martyrs in Sicily, Milan, Yienna, and Pesth. . 
The very sympathy which I met in England, and was 
expected to meet here, throws my sisters into the dungeons 
of Austria. Well, God's will be done ! The heart may break, 
but duty will be done. We will stand our place, though to us 
in Europe there be no " fair play." But so much I hope, 
that no just man on earth can charge me with unbecoming 
arrogance, when here, on this soil of freedom, I kneel down 
and raise my prayer to God : "Almighty Father of Humanity, 
will thy merciful arm not raise up a power on earth to protect 
the law of nations when there are so many to violate it ?" 
It is a prayer, and nothing else. What would remain 
to the oppressed if they were not even permitted to pray ? The 
rest is in the hand of God. 

Sir, I most fervently thank you for the acknowledgment 
that my country has proved worthy to be free. Yes, gentle- 
men, I feel proud at my nation's character, heroism, love of 
freedom and vitality ; and I bow with reverential awe before 
the decree of Providence which has placed my country into a 
position such that, without its restoration to independence, 
there is no possibility for freedom and independence of nations 
on the European continent. Even what now in France is 
coming to pass proves the truth of this. Every disappointed 
hope with which Europe looked towards France is a degree 
more added to the importance of Hungary to the world. 



124 BLINDNESS OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 

Upon our plains were fought the decisive battles for Christen- 
dom ; there will be fought the decisive battle for the Inde- 
pendence of nations, for State rights, for international law, 
and for democratic liberty. We will live free, or die 
like men ; but should my people be doomed to die, it will be 
the first whose death will not be recorded as suicide, but as a 
martyrdom for the world, and future ages will mourn over the 
sad fate of the Magyar race, doomed to perish, not because 
we deserved it, but because in the nineteenth century there was 
nobody to protect "the laws of nature and of nature's God." 
But I look to the future with confidence and with hope. 
Manifold adversities could not fail to impress some mark of 
sorrow upon my heart, which is at least a guard against 
sanguine illusions. But I have a steady faith in principles. 
Once in my life indeed I was deplorably deceived in my 
anticipations, from supposing principle to exist in quarters 
where it did not. I did not count on generosity or chivalrous 
goodness from the governments of England and France, but 
I gave them credit for selfish and instinctive prudence. I 
supposed them to value Parliamentary Government, and to 
have foresight enough to know the alarming dangej?s to which 
they would be exposed, if they allowed the armed interference 
of Eussia to overturn historical, limited, representative insti- 
tutions. But France and England both proved to be blind, 
and deceived me. It was a horrible mistake, and has issued 
in a horrible result. The present condition of Europe, which 
ought to have been foreseen by those governments, exculpates 
me for having erred through expecting them to see their own 
interests. Well, there is a providence in every fact. With- 
out this mistake the principles of American republicanism 
would for a long time yet not have found a fertile soil on that 
continent, where it was considered wisdom to belong to the 
French school. Now matters stand thus : that either the 
continent of Europe has no future at all, or this future is 
American republicanism. And who can believe that two 
hundred millions of that continent, which is the mother of 
such a civilization, are not to have any future at all ? Such 
a doubt would be almost blasphemy against Providence. But 
there is a Providence indeed — a just, a bountiful Providence, 



THE FUTURE OF EUROPE. 125 

and in it I trust, with all the piety of my religion. I dare to 
say my very self was an instrument of it. Even my being 
here, when four months ago I was yet a prisoner of the 
league of European despots in far Asia, and the sympathy 
which your glorious people honours me with, and the high 
benefit of the welcome of your Congress, and the honour to 
be your guest, to be the guest of your great Eepublic — I, a 
poor exile — is there not a very intelligible manifestation of 
Providence in it ? — the more, when I remember that the name 
of your guest is by the furious rage of the Austrian tyrant, 
nailed to the gallows. 

I confidently trust that the nations of Europe have a future. 
I am aware that this future is vehemently resisted by the 
bayonets of absolutism ; but I know that though bayonets 
may give a defence j they afford no seat to a Prince. I trust 
in the future of my native land, because I know that it is 
worthy to have one, and that it is necessary to the destinies 
of humanity. I trust to the principles of republicanism ; and, 
whatever be my personal fate, so much T know, that my 
country will preserve to you and your glorious land an ever- 
lasting gratitude. 

A toast in honour of Mr. Webster, the Secretary of State, 
having then been proposed, that gentleman responded in an 
ample speech, of which the following is an extract : — 

Gentlemen, I do not propose, at this hour of the night, 
to entertain you by any general disquisition upon the value 
of human freedom, upon the inalienable rights of man, or 
upon any general topics of that kind ; but I wish to say a few 
words upon the precise question, as I understand it, that exists 
before the civilized world, between Hungary and the Austrian 
Government, and I may arrange the thoughts to which I 
desire to give utterance under two or three general heads. 

And in the first place I say, that wherever there is in the 
Christian and civilized world a nationality of character — 
wherever there exists a nation of sufficient knowledge and 
wealth and population to constitute a Government, then a 
National Government is a necessary and proper result of 
nationality of character. We may talk of it as we please, 
but there is nothing that satisfies the human being in an 



126 MR. WEBSTER ON NATIONALITY 

enlightened age, unless he is governed by his own countrymen 
and the institutions of his own Government. No matter 
how easy be the yoke of a foreign Power, no matter how 
lightly it sits upon the shoulders, if it is not imposed by the 
voice of his own nation and of his own country, he wiU not, 
he cannot, and he means not to be happy under its burden. 

There is not a civilized and intelligent man on earth that 
enjoys entire satisfaction in his condition, if he does not 
live under the government of his own nation — his own 
country, whose volitions and sentiments and sympathies are 
like his own. Hence he cannot say " This is not my country; 
it is the country of another Power ; it is a country belonging 
to somebody else." Therefore, I say that wherever there is 
a nation of sufficient intelligence and numbers and wealth to 
maintain a government, distinguished in its character and its 
history and its institutions, that nation cannot be happy but 
under a government of its own choice. 

Then, sir, the next question is, whether Hungaiy, as she 
exists in our ideas, as we see her, and as we know her, is 
distinct in her nationality, is competent in her population, is 
also competent in her knowledge and devotion to correct 
sentiment, is competent in her national capacity for liberty 
and independence to obtain a government that shall be 
Hungarian out and out ? Upon that subject, gentlemen, I 
have no manner of doubt. Let us look a little at the position 
in which this matter stands. What is Hungary ? 

Hungary is about the size of Great Britain, and compre- 
hends nearly half of the territory of Austria. 

[According to one authority its population is 14 millions 
and a half.] 

It is stated by another authority that the population of 
Hungary is nearly 14,000,000; that of England (in 1841) 
nearly 15,000,000; that of Prussia about 16,000,000. 

Thus it is evident that, in point of power, so far as power 
depends upon population, Hungary possesses as much power 
as England proper, or even as the kingdom of Prussia. 
Well, then, there is population enough — there are people 
enough. Who, then, are they ? They are distinct from the 
nations that surround them. They are distinct from the 
Austrians on the west, and the Turks on the east ; and I will 



AND HUNGARIAN LIBERTIES. 127 

say in the next place that they are an enlightened nation. 
They have their history ; they have their traditions ; they are 
attached to their own institutions — institutions which have 
existed for more than a thousand years. 

Gentlemen, it is remarkable that, on the western coasts of 
Europe, political light exists. There is a sun in the political 
firmament, and that sun sheds his light on those who are able 
to enjoy it. But in eastern Europe, generally speaking, and 
on the confines between eastern Europe and Asia, there is 
no political sun in the heavens. It is all an arctic zone of 
political life. The luminary, that enlightens the world in 
general, seldom rises there above the horizon. The light 
which they possess is at best crepuscular, a kind of twilight, 
and they are under the necessity of groping about to catch, 
as they may, any stray gleams of the light of day. Gentle- 
men, the country of which your guest to-night is a native is 
a remarkable exception. She has shown through her whole 
history, for many hundreds of years, an attachment to the 
principles of civil liberty, and of law and of order, and obe- 
dience to the constitution which the will of the great majority 
have established. That is the fact; and it ought to be 
known wherever the question of the practicability of Hunga- 
rian liberty and independence are discussed. It ought to be 
known that Hungary stands out from it above her neighbours 
in all that respects free institutions, constitutional govern- 
ment, and a hereditary love of liberty. 

Gentlemen, my sentiments in regard to this effort made by 
Hungary are here sufiiciently well expressed. In a memorial 
addressed to Lord John Eussell and Lord Palmerston, said 
to have been written by Lord Fitzwilliam, and signed by him 
and several other Peers and members of Parliament, the 
following language is used, the object of the memorial being 
to ask the mediation of England in favour of Hungary : 

" While so many of the nations of Europe have engaged in revo- 
lutionary movements, and have embarked in schemes of doubtful 
policy and still more doubtful success, it is gratifying to the under- 
signed to be able to assure your lordships that the Hungarians 
demand nothing but the recognition of ancient rights and the 
stabihty and integrity of their ancient constitution. To your lord- 
ships it cannot be unknovrn that that constitution bears a striking 
famLly-resemblance to that of our own country." 



128 FOREIGN AND VIOLENT RULE 

Gentlemen, I have said that a National Government, where 
there is a distinct nationality, is essential to human happiness. 
I have said that in my opinion, Hungary is thus capable of 
human happiness. I have said that she possesses that distinct 
nationality, that power of population, and that of wealth, 
which entitles her to have a Government of her own ; and I 
have now to add what I am sure will not sound well upon 
the Upper Danube ; and that is, that, in my humble judgment, 
the imposition of a foreign yoke upon a people capable of self- 
government, while it oppresses and depresses that people, 
adds nothing to the strength of those who impose that yoke. 
In my opinion, Austria would be a better and' a stronger 
Government to-morrow if she confined the limits of her power 
to hereditary and German dominions. Especially if she saw 
in Hungary a strong, sensible, independent neighbouring 
nation ; because I think that the cost of keeping Hungary 
quiet is not repaid by any benefit derived from Hungarian 
levies or tributes. And then again, good neighbourhood, 
and the goodwill and generous sympathies of mankind, and 
the generosity of character that ought to pervade the minds 
of Governments as well as those of individuals, is vastly more 
promoted by living in a state of friendship and amity with those 
who differ from us in modes of government, than by any 
attempt to consolidate power in the hands of one over all the 
rest. 

Gentlemen, the progress of things is unquestionably onward. 
It is onward with respect to Hungary. It is onward every- 
where. Public opinion, in my estimation at least, is making 
great progress. It will penetrate aU resources ; it will come 
more or less to animate all minds ; and in respect to that 
country, for which our sympathies to-night have been so 
strongly invoked, I cannot but say that I think the people of 
Hungary are an enlightened, industrious, sober, well-inclined 
community ; and I wish only to add, that I do not now enter 
into any discussion of the form of government which may be 
proper for Hungary. Of course, aU of you, like myself, 
would be glad to see her, when she becomes independent, 
embrace that system of government which is most acceptable 
to ourselves. We shall rejoice to see our American model 



WEAKENS ITS HOLDERS. 129 

upon the Lower Danube, and on the mountains of Hungary. 
But that is not the first step. It is not that which will be 
our first prayer for Hungary. That first prayer shall be, that 
Hungary may become independent of all foreign power, that 
her destinies may be entrusted to her own hands, and to her 
own discretion. / I do not profess to understand the social 
relations and connections of races, and of twenty other things 
that may affect the public institutions of Hungary. All I say 
is, that Hungary can regulate these matters for herself in- 
finitely better than they can be regulated for her by Austria, 
and therefore I limit my aspirations for Hungaiy, for the 
present, to that single and simple point Hungarian inde- 
pendence : — 

" Hungarian independence ; Hungarian control of her own des- 
tinies ; and Hungary as a distinct nationality among the nations of 
Europe." 

The toast was received with enthusiastic applause. 
The President then announced the next toast — 

" The rights of states are only valuable when subject to the free 
control of those to whom they appertain, and utterly worthless if to 
be determined by the sword of foreign interference." 

Mr. Douglas of Illinois, one of the Candidates for the 
Presidency, in responding, spoke at length, and denounced 
the injustice and folly of England. In the close he said : — 

He regarded the intervention of Russia in the affairs of Hungary 
as a palpable violation of the laws of nations, that would authorize 
the United States to interfere. If Russia, or Austria, or any other 
power, should interfere again, then he would determine whether or 
not we should act, his action depending upon the circumstances as 
they should then be presented. In the mean time however he 
would proclaim the principle of the laws of nations : he would 
instruct our ministers abroad to protest the moment there was the 
first symptom of the violation of these laws. He would show to 
Europe that we had as much right to sympathize in a system of 
government similar to our own, as they had in similar circumstances. 
In his opinion, Hungary was better adapted for a liberal movement 
than any other nation in Europe. 

In conclusion, Mr. Douglas begged leave to offer the fol- 
lowing sentiment : — 

" HuxaARY : When she shall make her next struggle for Ubertv, 

6 § 



130 GENERAL CASS ON HUNGARY. 

may the friends of freedom tliroughout the worid proclaim to the 
ears of all European despots, Hands off, a clear field and a fair fight, 
and God will protect the right." 

The toast was received with the greatest applause. 
Colonel Florence submitted the following sentiment : — 

" The American Minister to France, whose intervention defeated 
the quintuple treaty." 

General Cass replied in a veiy energetic speech, in which 
he stated that he was approaching the age of three score 
years and ten. Turning to Kossuth, he said : — 

Leader of your counti*y's revolution — asserter of the rights of 
man — martyr of the principles of national independence — welcome 
to our shores ! Sir, the ocean, more merciful than the wrath of 
tyrants, has brought you to a country of freedom and of safety. 
That was a proud day for you, but it was a prouder day for us, when 
you left the shores of old Hellespont and put your foot upon an 
American deck. Protected by American cannon, with the stars of 
our country floa' ing over you, you could defy the world in arms ! 
And, sir, here in the land of Washington, it is not a barren welcome 
that I desire to give you ; but much further than that I am willing 
to go. I am willing to lay down the great principles of national 
rights, and adhere to them. The sun of heaven never shone on such 
a government as this. And shall we sit blindfolded, with our arms 
crossed, and say to tyranny, " Prevail in every other region of the 
world?" [Cries of "No, no!"] I thank you for the response. 
Every independent nation under Heaven has a right to estabhsh 
just such a government as it pleases. And if the oppressed of any 
nation wish to thi'ow off their shackles, they have the right, without 
the interference of any other ; and, with the first and greatest of our 
Presidents — the father of his country — I trust we are prepared to 
say, that " we sympathize with every oppressed nation which unfurls 
the banner of freedom." And I am wilhng, as a member of Congress, 
to pass a declaration to-morrow, in the name of the American 
people, maintaining that sentiment. 

A toast was then proposed : 

" Turkey : Her noble hospitality extended to a fallen patriot, even 
at the risk of war, proves her to be worthy of the respect and friend- 
ship of liberal nations." 

Kossuth replied as follows :— 

Sir, I feel very thankful for having the opportunity to express 
in this place my everlasting gratitude to the Sultan of Turkey 



KOSSUTH ON THE TURKISH SULTAN. 131 

and to his noble people. I am not a man to flatter any one. 
Before God, nations, and principles I bow — before none else. 
But I bow with warm and proud gratitude, before the memory 
of the generous conduct I met ih Turkey. And I entreat 
your kind permission to state some facts, which perhaps may 
contribute something to a better knowledge of that country, 
because I am confident that, when it is once better known, 
more attention will be bestowed on its future. 

Firstly, as to myself. When I was in that country, and 
Eussia and Austria, in the full pride of their victory, were 
imposing their will upon the Sultan, and claiming the surrender 
of me and my associates, it is true that a grand divan was 
held at Constantinople, and not very favourable opinions were 
pronounced by a certain party opposed to the existing govern- 
ment in Turkey, whereby the Sublime Porte itself was led to 
believe that there was no help for us poor exiles, but to aban- 
don our faith and become Mohammedans, in order that 
Turkey might be able to protect us. I thereupon made a 
declaration, which I believe I was bound in honesty to make. 
But I owe it to the honour of the Sultan to say openly, that 
even before I had declared that I would rather die than accept 
this condition — before that declaration was conveyed to Con- 
stantinople, and before any one there could have got know- 
ledge that I had appealed to the public opinion of England 
in relation thereto — before all this was known at Constanti- 
nople, when the decision of that great divan was announced 
to the Sultan to be unfavourable to the exiles, he out of the 
generosity of his own heart, without knowing what we were 
willing to accept or not to accept, declared : " They are upon 
the soil ; they have trusted to my honour, to my justice — to 
my religion — and they shall not be deceived. Eather will I 
accept war than deliver them up." That is entirely his merit. 
But notwithstanding these high obligations which I feel 
towards Turkey, I never will try to engage public sympathy 
and attention towards a country — towards a power — upon the 
basis of one fact. But there are many considerations in 
reference to Turkey which merit the full attention of the 
United States of America. 

When, we make a comparison between the Turkish Govern- 



132 RELIGION^ MUNICIPALITIES^ 

ment and that of Austria and Russia in respect to religious 
liberty, the scale turns entirely in favour of Turkey. There 
is not only toleration for all religions, but the government 
does not mix with their <ffeligious affairs, but leaves these 
entirely to their own control; whereas under Austria, although 
self-government was secured by three victorious revolutions, 
by treaties which ensured these revolutions, and by hundreds 
of laws ; still Austria has blotted out from Hungary the self- 
government of the Protestant church, while Turkey accords 
and protects the self-government of every religious denomi- 
nation. Russia (as is well known) taking religion as a political 
tool, persecutes the Roman Catholics, and indeed the Greeks 
and Jews, in such a manner that the heart of man must revolt 
against it. The Sultan, whenever a fanatic dares to encroach 
on the religious freedom of any one atall in his wide dominions, 
is the inexorable champion of that religious liberty which is 
permitted everywhere under his rule. 

Again, I must cite from the history of Hungary this fact ; 
that when one-half of Hungary was under Turkish dominion, 
and the other half under Austrian, religious liberty was always 
encouraged in that part which was under the Turkish rule ; 
and there was not only a full development of Protestantism, 
but Unitarianism also was protected ; yet by Austria the 
Unitarians were afterwards excluded from every civil right, 
because they were Unitarians, although our revolution restored 
their natui'al rights. Such was the condition in respect 
to religious liberty under the Austrian and under the Turkish 
dominion. 

Now, in respect to municipal self-government, Hungary 
and all those different provinces which are now opposed to the 
Austrian empire, — if indeed an empire which only rests upon 
the goodwill of a foreign master, can be said to exist, or even 
to vegetate, — all those different provinces are absorbed by 
Austria. There was not one which had not in former times 
a constitutional life, not one which Austria did not deprive 
of it by centralizing all power in her own court. Such is the 
principle of Christian rule ! 

Take, on the other hand, the Turk. In Turkey I have 
not only seen the municipal self-government of cities de- 



AND GOOD FAITH IN TURKEY. 133 

veloped to a very considerable degree, but I have seen 
administration of justice very much like the institution of 
the jury. I have seen a public trial in a case where one 
party was a Turk, and the other party a Christian ; where 
the municipal authorities of the Christian and of the Turkish 
population were called together to be not only the witnesses 
of the trial, but mutually to control and direct it with 
perfect publicity. But more yet : there exist Wallachia and 
Moldavia, under Turkish dominion ; and the Turkish nation, 
which has conquered that province and is dominant, yet, 
out of respect for national self-government, has prescribed 
to its own self not to have the right of a house to dwell in, 
or a single foot of soil in that land. In all the domestic 
concerns of the province — which for centuries has had a 
charter, by which the self-government of Wallachia and 
Moldavia was ensured — it is worthy to mention that the 
Turk has never broken his oath. "Whereas in the European 
continent there is scarcely a single dynasty, whether king, 
prince, duke, or emperor, which has not broken faith before 
God and man. Now, the existence of this Turkey, great as 
the present power of Europe is, is indispensable to the 
security of Europe. Toji know that in the Crimea, in 
the time of Catherine, Potemkin wrote the words, "Here 
passes the way to Constantinople." The policy indicated 
by him at that time is always the policy of St. Petersburg; 
and it is of Constantinople that Napoleon rightly said, that 
the power which has it in command, if it is willing, is able, to 
rule three-quarters of the world. Now, it is the intention, 
it is the consistent policy of the liussian cabinet, to lay hold 
of Constantinople ; and therefore to protect the independent 
existence of Turkey is necessary to Europe : for if Turkey 
be crushed, Russia becomes not only entirely predominant, 
as she already is, but becomes the single mistress of Asia 
and of Europe. And to uphold this independence of Turkey, 
gentlemen, nothing is wanted but some encouragement from 
such a place as the United States. Since Turkey has lost 
the possession of Buda in Hungary, its power is declining. 
But why ? Because from that time European diplomatists 
began to succeed in persuading Turkey that she had no 



134 TURKEY VALUABLE TO CHRISTENDOM. 

strength to stand by herself; and by and bye it became the 
rule in Constantinople that every petty interior question 
needed European diplomacy. Now I say, Turkey has 
vitality such as not many nations have. It has a power 
that not many have. Turkey wants nothing but a conscious- 
ness of its own powers and encouragement to stand upon 
its own feet ; and this encouragement, if it comes as counsel, 
as kind advice, out of such a place as the United States, I 
am confident will not only be thankfully heard, but also very 
joyfully followed. That is the only thing which is wanted 
there. 

And besides this political consideration tliat the existence 
of Turkey, as it is, is necessary to the future of Europe, 
there are also high commercial considerations proper to 
interest and attract the United States. The freedom of 
commerce on the Danube is a law of nations guaranteed by 
treaties; and yet there exists no freedom. It is in the hands 
of Kussia. Turkey, to be sure, is very anxious to re-establish 
freedom ; but there is nobody to back her in her demands. 
Turkey can also present to the manufacturing industry of 
such a country as the United States a far larger and more 
important market than all China, with her two hundred and 
fifty millions of inhabitants. 

But one consideration 1 can mention — and though it has 
no reference to the public opinion here, I beg permission to 
avail myself of this opportunity to pronounce it and give it 
publicity — and that is, that I hope in the name of the future 
freedom and independence' of the European nations, those 
provinces of Turkey which are inhabited by Christians will 
not, out of theoretical passion, and out of attachment to a 
mere word, neglect that course of action which alone can 
lead them to freedom and independence. Gentlemen, I 
declare that should the next revolutionary movement in 
Europe extend to the Turkish provinces of Moldavia and 
Servia, — and should Turkey hereby fall, — this would not 
become a benefit to those provinces, but would benefit 
Eussia only; because then, Turkey no more existing, all 
those provinces will be naturally absorbed by Eussia ; 
whereas, to hold fast to Turkey — that Turkey, which respects 



MR, BLAIR ON NEUTRALITY. 135 

religious liberty, gives tliem entirely and fully self-govern- 
ment. 

So much, gentlemen, I desired to express. I believe you 
will excuse me for the inappropriate manner in which I have 
acquitted myself of this, which I considered to be my duty 
in expressing my thanks to Turkey. I declare before you 
that I am fully convinced of the identity of interest between 
Hungary and Turkey. We have a common enemy — there- 
fore Hungary and Turkey are by natural ties drawn into a 
close alliance against that enemy. I declare that not only 
out of gratitude, but also out of a knowledge of this com- 
munity of interest, I will never in my life let an opportunity 
escape where I in my humble capacity can contribute to the 
glory, welfare, and happiness of Turkey, but will consider it 
the duty of honour toward my country to be the truest, 
most faithful friend of the Turkish empire. 



XVni.— ASPECTS OP AMEEICA TOWAED ENGLAND. 

\_Speech at the Anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, Jan. 8,] 

F. p. Blair, Esq., in the name of the Democratic Associa- 
tion, pronounced an elaborate address, vindicating the inter- 
position of the King of France to aid the American Colonies 
when they revolted from England, and pointing out that 
America, in defence of her institutions, may be called on to 
support the masses of the European nations as a breakwater 
between herself and Despotism. He showed the certain 
danger to which English freedom would be exposed from the 
triumph of despotism, and asked : — 

'' What have we to expect from Neutrality ? We may 
anticipate the treatment which we received from both belli- 
gerents when Napoleon pressed on to empire over all the 
nations, as Eussia does now .... Can we hope, that when 
the war is intended to exterminate the principle of which 
our government is the great exemplar, our people wiU be 
allowed the immunity of free trade with the belligerents to 

grow rich and strong by their calamities? The 

impending danger can only be averted from us by the ability 



136 PERIODS IN NATIONAL LIFE. 

of the people of Europe, now kept down by military merce- 
naries, to rise and assert their own rights. To encourage 
such efforts is the duty of every free people, and of all that 

would be free Shall our government hesitate to 

denounce as a violation of the law of nations the intervention 
of the Czar ? Shall it hesitate to declare it a justification of a 

counter-intervention ? Our countrymen will not 

assent to the one-sided doctrine. They will intervene to lift 
up those stricken down by intervention, — 

The Exiles from Europe — Liberty and Louis Liossuth ! 

The band struck up the well-known Marseilles Hymn, and 
Kossuth, rising to respond, was received with prolonged 
cheers. The music having ceased, three hearty cheers were 
given, and 

Louis Kossuth responded to the toast and the address in 
the following remarks, which were received with warm en- 
thusiasm : — 

Gentlemen : I feel sincerely gratified with the honour of 
being invited to be present on this solemn occasion, dedicated 
to the memory of a glorious as well as highly responsible 
fact in your history. 

There is high political wisdom in the custom yearly to 
revive the memory of civil virtue and national glory in the 
mind of the living generation, because nothing else is so 
efficient to keep alive the spirit of patriotism — that powerful 
genius, which, like the angels of Scripture, guards with 
flaming sword the Paradise of national liberty and indepen- 
dence. Happy the land where the history of the past is the 
history of the people, and not a mere flattery of kings ; and 
doubly happy the land where the rewards of the past are 
brightened by present glory, present happiness ; and where 
the noble deeds of the dead, instead of being a mournful 
monument of vanished greatness which saddens the heart, 
though it ennobles the mind, are a lasting source of national 
welfare to the age and to posterity. Eut where, as in this 
your happy land, national history is the elementary basis of 
education — where the very schoolboy is better acquainted 
with the history of his country than in monarchies almost 
the professors are — in such a country it would be indeed but 
a ridiculous parading of vanity for a stranger to dwell upon 



PERIODS OF THE UNITED STATES. 137 

facts which every child is better acquainted with than he can 
be. Allow me therefore, gentlemen, rather briefly to expound 
what is the practical philosophy of that great victory which 
you are assembled to celebrate — what is the moral of the 
strain as it presents itself to the inquirer's mind. 

As a man has to pass through several periods of age, each 
of them marked with its own peculiarities, before he comes 
to a settled position in life, even so a nation. A nation has 
first to be born, then to grow; then it has to prove its 
passive vitality by undergoing a trial of life. Afterwards it 
has to prove its active force to rise within its own immediate 
horizon. At last, it must take its proper seat amongst the 
nations of the world as a power on earth. Every one of these 
periods of national life must be gone through. There is no 
help for it. It is a necessary process of life. And every 
cue of these life-periods has its own natural condition, w^hich 
must be accepted as a necessity, even if we should not be 
pleased with it. 

Gentlemen, having passed through the ordeal of an earnest 
life, with the prospect of yet having to steer through stormy 
gales, it is natural that, while I grasp my helm, I gaze at 
History, as my compass. And there is no history more in- 
structive than yours, because you have concentrated within 
the narrow scope of a few years that natural process of 
national life, which elsewhere was achieved only through 
centuries. It would be a mistake, and a mistake not with- 
out danger, to believe that your nation is still in its youth 
because it has lived but seventy-five years. The natural 
condition of nations is not measured by years, but by those 
periods of the process of life which I have mentioned. 
And there is no nation on earth in whose history those 
periods were so distinctly marked as in yours. First, you 
had to be born. That is the period of your glorious struggle 
for independence. Endless honour be to those who con- 
ducted it ! You were baptized with blood, as it seems to be 
the destiny of nations ; but it was the genius of Freedom 
which stood god-father at your baptism, and gave to you a 
lasting character by giving you the Christian name of 
" Republic'' Then you had to grow, and, indeed, you have 
grown with the luxuriant rapidity of the virgin nature of the 



138 WARS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

American soil. Washington knew the nature of this soil, 
fertilized by the blood of your martyrs and warmed by the 
sun of your liberty. He knew it, when he told your fathers 
that you wanted but twenty years of peaceful growth to defy 
any power whatsoever in a just cause. You have grown 
through those twenty years, and wisely avoided to endanger 
your growth by undertaking a toil not becoming to your 
growing age; and there you stood about another twenty 
years, looking resolutely but unpretendingly around, if there 
be anybody to question that you were really a nation. The 
question was put in 1812, and decided by that glorious 
victory, the anniversary of which you celebrate to-day. That 
victory has a deeper meaning in your history than only that 
of a repulsed invasion. It marks a period in youi* national 
life — the period of acknowledged, unshakeable security of 
your national existence. It is the consummation of your 
declaration of independence. You have proved by it that 
the United States possess an incontestable vitality, having 
the power to preserve that independent national position 
which your fathers established by the declaration of inde- 
pendence. In reality, it was the victory of New Orleans by 
which you took your seat amongst the independent nations 
of the world, never to be contested through all posterity. 

If the history of New Orleans showed the security of your 
national existence, the victorious war against Mexico proved 
that also your national interests must be respected. The 
period of active vitality is attained. It remains yet to take 
your seat, not amongst the nations of the earth, for that you 
have since the day of New Orleans, but amongst the potoers 
on earth. What is the meaning of that word "power on 
earth ?" The meaning of it is, to have not only the power to 
guard your own particular interests, but also to have a vote 
in the regulation of the common interests of humanity, of 
which you are an independent member — ^in a word, to become 
a tribunal enforcing the law of nations, precisely as your 
supreme court maintains your own constitution and laws. 
And, indeed, all argument of statesmanship, aU philosophy 
of history, would be vain, if I were mistaken that your great 
nation is arrived at this unavoidable period of life. 

The instinct of the people is in the life of a nation pre- 



INSTINCT TOWARDS A FOREIGN POLICY. 139 

cisely that which conscience is in the life of man. Before we, 
in our private life, arrive at a clear conviction what course 
we have to adopt in this or that occurrence, the conscience — 
that inexplicable spirit in our breast — tells us in a pulsation 
of our heart what is right or what is wrong. And this first 
pulsation of conscience is very trustworthy. Then comes the 
reflective operation of the mind : it now and then lulls con- 
science to sleep, now and then modifies particulars, and now 
and then raises it to the degree of conviction. But conscience 
was in advance of the mind. So is the instinct of the people — 
the conscience of nations. Nor needs the highest intellectual 
power of individuality to feel offended at the idea that the 
instinct of the people is always the first to feel the right and 
wrong. It is the pulsation of the heart of the nation ; it is 
the advertisement of conscience, which never heaves without 
reason, without necessity. 

Indeed, gentlemen, it is not my presence here which 
elicited that majestic interest for national law and inter- 
national rights. Nay, I had not been here, but for the pre- 
existence of this interest. It raised glorious interpreters 
during the struggles of Greece, when, indeed, I was yet too 
young to be in public life. It flashed up, kindled by Poland's 
heroic struggles, and it blazed high and broad when we were 
fighting the sacred battle of independence for the European 
continent. Had this interest and sympathy not existed long 
ago, I were not now here. My very freedom is the result 
of it. 

And may I be permitted to mention that there were 
several concerns quite unconnected with the cause of Hungary, 
which have much contributed to direct public opinion to feel 
interested in the question of foreign policy, so naturally con- 
nected with the question. What is international law ? 

Your relations with Mexico and Central America; the 
threatened intervention of European powers in the possible 
issue of a recent case which brought so much mourning into 
many families in the United States ; the question about the 
Sandwich Islands, which European diplomacy appeared to 
contemplate as an appropriate barrier between your Pacific 
States and the Indian and Chinese trade ; the sad fate of an 
American citizen now condemned to the galleys in Africa ; 



liO SENTIMENT OF THE ENGLISH PEOPLE. 

and several otlier considerations of pressing concern, must 
necessarily have contributed to excite the interest of public 
opinion for the settlement of the question, What is and what 
shall be law amongst nations ? — law not dictated by the 
whims of ambitious despots, but founded upon everlasting 
principles, such as republics can acknowledge who themselves 
live upon principles. 

The cause of Hungary is implicated with the very questions 
of right, in which your countr}^ in so many respects is con- 
cerned. It happens to lie so broad across the principles of 
international law, as to occupy not only the instinct of the 
people, but also the calm reflection of your statesmen, con- 
spicuous by mature wisdom and patriotism ; and herein is 
the key, besides the generosity congenial to freemen, why 
the cause which I plead is honoured with so rapid a progress 
of public sentiment. 

And let me entreat your permission for one topic more. 
I received, during my brief stay in England, some one 
hundred and thirty addresses from cities and associations, 
all full of the same warm sympathy for my country's cause, 
which you also have so generously testified. That sympathy 
was accorded to me, notwithstanding my frank declaration 
that I am a republican, and that my country, when restored 
to independence, can be nothing but a republic. Now this 
is a fact gratifying to every friend of progress in public 
sentiment, highly proving that the people are everywhere 
honourable, just, noble, and good. And do you know, 
gentlemen, which of these numerous addresses were the most 
glorious to the people of England and the most gratifying 
to me? It w^as one in which I heard your Washington 
praised, and sorrow avowed that England had opposed that 
glorious cause upon which is founded the noble fame of that 
great man ; and the addresses — (numerous they were indeed) 
— ^in which the hope and resolution were expressed, that 
England and the United States, forgetting the sorrows of the 
past, will in brotherly love go hand in hand to support the 
eternal principles of international law and freedom on earth. 

Yes indeed, sir, you were right to say that the justice of 
your struggle, which took out of England's hand a mighty 
continent, is openly acknowledged even by the English people 



NOT THAT OF THEIR GOVERNMENT. 141 

itself. The memory of the day of New Orleans must of 
course recall to your mind the wrongs against which you so 
gloriously fought. Oh, let me entreat you, bury the hatred 
of past ages in the grave where all the crimes of the past lie 
mouldering with the ashes of those who sinned, and take the 
glorious opportunity to benefit the great cause of humanity. 

One thing let me tell you, gentlemen. People and Govern- 
ments are different things in such a country as Great Britain 
is. It is sorrowful enough that the people have often to pay 
for what the government sinned. Let it not be said in 
history, that even the people of the United States made a 
kindred people pay for the sins of its government. And 
remember that you can mightily react upon the public opinion 
of Britain, and that the people of Britain can react upon 
the course of its own government. It were indeed a great 
misfortune to see the government of Great Britain pushed 
by irritation to side with the absolutist powers against the 
oppressed nations about to struggle for independence and 
liberty. Even Ireland could only lose by this. And besides 
its own loss, this might perhaps be just the decisive blow 
against liberty'; whereas if the government of England, 
otherwise remaining as it is, do but unite with you not to 
allow foreign interference with our struggles on the continent, 
this would become almost a sure guarantee of the victory of 
those struggles ; and, according as circumstances stand, this 
would be indeed the most practical benefit to the noble 
people of Ireland also, because freedom, independence, and 
the principles of natural law could not fail to benefit their 
cause, which so well merits the sympathy of every just man; 
and they have also the sympathy — I know it — of the better 
half of England itself. 

Hatred is no good counsellor, gentlemen. The wisdom of 
love is a better one. What people has suffered more than 
my poor Hungary has from Eussia ? Shall I hate the people 
of Eussia for it ? Oh never ! I have but pity and Christian 
brotherly love for it. It is the government, it is the principle 
of the government, which makes every drop of my blood boil, 
and which must fall, if humanity is to live. We were for 
centuries in war against the Turks, and God knows what we 
have suffered by it ! But past is past. Now we have a 



142 MEANING OF RECOGNIZING 

common enemy, and thus we have a common interest, a 
mutual esteem, and love rules where our fathers have 
fought. 

Gentlemen, how far this supreme duty toward your own 
interest will allow you to go in giving life and effect to the 
principle which you so generously proclaim, and which your 
party (as I have understood) have generously proclaimed in 
different parts — that you will in your wisdom decide, remain- 
ing always the masters of your action and of your fate. But 
that principle will rest ; that principle is true ; that principle is 
just; and you are just, because you are free. I hope there- 
fore to see you cordially unite with me once more in the 
sentiment — 

"Intervention for non-intervention." 



XIX.— MEANING OF RECOGNIZING. 
\JLast Speech at WashingtonJ] 

In returning thanks to all 4:he citizens here assembled, and 
to yourself, sir, in particular,* I beg to add some remarks. 
That I have not here been honoured with the same demon- 
strations of local cordiality as in other places, I do not, with 
you, attribute to diplomatic influences. I know well the 
skill of Eussian diplomacy, which indeed at Moldovarica in- 
structs all its representatives to marry Moldovarican ladies. 
But I also know that the framers of your Constitution wisely 
discouraged the development of municipal life in the district 
of Columbia, lest local influences and pressure from without 
in the seat of the central legislature might unduly sway the 
national councils. Just so, we have often known a single 
street in Paris coerce the deliberations of the nation. Co- 
lumbia having, as I understand, by an exceptional arrange- 
ment, no true local self-government, is deficient in local 
movement. Nevertheless, I have received ^nm^^ expression 
of sentiment and of generous kind sympathy from various 
parts of this district, and chiefly from the city of AVashington. 

* Chancellor Walworth of New York. 



HUNGARIAN LEGITIMACY. 143 

In respect to the declaration which you make as to non- 
intervention, I have only to thank you, and to express my 
earnest hope that all those in whose name you speak, will 
proceed to give effect to their principle in public life. 

The second right of nations, — that of mutual commerce, 
— still more closely touches your domestic interests. I 
regard it as a clear national right of your citizens to hold 
commerce with the thirty-five millions of men oppressed by 
Austria, if those thirty-five millions desire it, though the 
Emperor of Austria, having occupied an immoral position, 
refuse it to you : and if the people of Hungary, Bohemia, 
and Italy take arms to punish his atrocities, that is no good 
reason why your citizens should submit to abstain from 
commerce with these injured nations. 

In regard to my third desire, to see the legitimacy of our 
declaration of Independence acknowledged by ^Coi^ress ; 
that did not mean that I (a poor exile !) am de facvo^m^xwQx 
of Hungary ! You little conceive how valuable to us it 
w^ould have been, if your Envoy, who came to inquire and 
report, during our struggle, had been authorized to recognize 
the legitimacy of our cause and of our proceeding. And 
even now, the moral effect would be great ; for such an act 
cannot stand alone, it points to your future policy towards 
every other nation. Moreover, it would enlarge the lawful 
field of action for private sympathy, and would enable me to 
accept many things which I cannot now : I do not mean 
titles, — which I value not. I care only for my country's 
dignity ; but it appertains to its dignity that its solemnly 
expressed WiU be recognized by your government. 

Legislatures of your States (with warm gratitude I acknow- 
ledge) have declared these principles : cities and associations 
have received them ; so have many eminent persons. But if 
you wish foreign powers to know that it is not Mr. A. or Mr. B. 
but the nation itself which prono^ nces them, I venture to sug- 
gest that it may be convenient in your various associations of 
every kind to make separate declarations to this effect, as, by 
contributions of money ever so small ; and this will really be 
national aid. If the United States carry out this determina^ 
tion with their characteristic energy it wiU be effectual. 



144 



XX.— CONTEAST OF THE AMERICAN TO THE 
HUXaAEIAN CRISIS. 

\_Speech hefore the Senate at AnnajpoUs^ Jan. 13.] 

Kossuth, having arrived at Annapolis, capital of Maryland, 
was entertained in the Government House by Governor Lowe, 
and was next day introduced to the Senate, who welcomed 
him with a cordial address. He responded as foUows : — 

Mr. President : In the changes of my stormy life, many 
occasions, connected with associations of historical interest, 
have impressed a deep emotion upon my mind : but perhaps 
never yet has the memory of the past made such a glowing 
impression upon me as here. 

I bow reverentially. Senators of Maryland, in this glorious 
hall, the sanctuary of immortal deeds, hallowed by immortal 
names. 

Before I thank the living, let me look to those dead whose 
spirits dwell within these walls [looking at the portraits that 
hung upon the walls], living an imperishable life in the glory, 
freedom, and happiness of your great United Republic, which 
is destined, as I confidently hope, to become the corner-stone 
of the future of Humanity. 

Tes, there they are, the glorious architects of the inde- 
pendence of this Republic. 

There is Thortias Stone ; there, your Demosthenes, Samuel 
Chose ; there, Charles Carroll, of CarralUon, who designedly 
added that epithet to the significance of his name, that 
nobody should be mistaken about w^ho was the Carroll who 
dared the noble deed, and was rewarded by being the last of 
his illustrious companions, whom God called to the Heavenly 
Paradise, after he had long enjoyed the paradise of freedom 
on earth; and here, William Paca ; — all of them signers of 
the Declaration of American Independence — that noblest, 
happiest page in mankind's history. 

How happy that man must have been [pointing to the 
portrait of Governor Paca] having to govern this sovereign 
State on that day when, within these very halls the act was 
ratified, which, by the recognition of your very enemy, raised 
your country to an independent nation. 



HUNGARY WAS DESERTED. 145 

Ye spirits of the departed ! cast a ray of consolation by the 
voice of your nation over that injured land, whose elected 
chief, a wandering exile for having dared to imitate you, lays 
the trembling hopes of an oppressed continent before the - 
generous heart of your people — now not only an independent 
nation but also a mighty and glorious power. 

Alas ! what a difference in the success of two like deeds ! 
Have we not done what ye did ? Yes, we have. Was the 
cause for which we did it not alike sacred and just as yours ? 
It was. Or have we not fought to sustain it with equal reso- 
lution as your brethren did ? Bold though it be to claim a 
glory such as America has, I am bold to claim, and say — yes, 
we did. And yet what a difference in the result ! And whence 
this difference ? Only out of that single circumstance that, 
while you, in your struggle, met with assistance, we in ours 
met not even with '' fair play :'''' — since, when we fought, 
there was nobody on earth to maintain '' the laws of nature's 
God." 

Daring our struggle, America was silent and England did 
not stir ; and while you were assisted by a French King, w^e 
were forsaken by a French Republic — itself now trodden 
down because it has forsaken us ! 

Well, we are not broken yet. There is hope for us, because 
there is a God in heaven and an America on earth. May be 
that our nameless woes were necessary, that the glorious 
destiny of America may be fulfilled ; that after it had been 
an asylum for the oppressed, it should become, by regenerating 
Europe, the pillar of manhood's liberty. 

Oh 1 it is not a mere capricious change of fate, that the 
exiled governor of that land whose name, four years ago, was 
scarcely known on your glorious shores, and which now (oh, let 
me have the blessings of this belief !) is dear to the generous 
heart of America. It is not a mere chance that Hungary's 
exiled chief thanks the Senators of Maryland for the high 
honour of public welcome in that very HaU where the first 
Continental Congress met; where your great Eepublic's 
glorious constitution was framed ; where the treaty of ac- 
knowledged independence was ratified, and where you, Senators, 
guard with steady hand the rights of your sovereign Slates 

7 



146 INJURY STIMULATES FREEDOM. 

which is now united to thirty others, not to make you less free, 

but to make you more mighty — to make you a power on 

earth. 

I believe there is the hand of God in history. You assigned 

a place in this hall of freedom to the memoiy of Chatham, for 

having been just to America, by opposing the stamp act, which 

awoke your nation to resistance. 

Now, the people of England think as once Pitt the elder 

thought, and honours with deep reverence the memory of your 

Washington. 

But suppose the England of Lord Chatham's time had 

thought as Chatham did : and his burning words had moved 
the English aristocracy to be just towards the colonies : those 
four men there [turning to the portraits] had not signed your 
country's independence. Washington were perhaps a name 
" unknown, unhonoured, and unsung," and this proud con- 
stellation of your glorious stars had perhaps not yet risen on 
mankind's sky — instead of being now about to become the 
sun of freedom. It is thus Providence acts. 

Let me hope, sir, that Hungary's unmerited fate was 
necessary, in order that your stars should become such a sun. 
Sirs, I stand, perhaps, upon the very spot where your 
Washington stood, consummating the greatest act of his life. 
The walls which now listen to my humble words, listened to 
the words of his republican virtue, immortal by their very 
modesty. Let me, upon this sacred spot, express my confident 
belief that if he stood here now, he would tell you that his 
prophecy is fulfilled ; that you are mighty enough " to defy 
any power on earth in a just cause," and he would tell you 
that there never was and never will be a cause more just than 
the cause of Hungary, being, as it is, the cause of oppressed 
humanity. 

Sir, I thank the Senate of Maryland, in my country's name, 
for the honour of your generous welcome. I entreat the 
Senate kindly to remember my prostrate fatherland. Sir, I 
bid you farewell, feeling heart and soul purified, and my reso- 
lution strengthened, by the very air of this ancient city of 
Providence. 



147 



XXI.— THANKS FOR HIS GEEAT SUCCESS. 

[^Speech at Sarrishit/rg, Pennsylvania, on Ms Reception in the Capitol, 
Jan. 14ith.'] 

On Jan. 14tli Kossuth was received in Harrisburg, chief 
city of Pennsylvania, in the Capitol. Governor Johnston, 
in the name of the State, addressed ta him a copious and 
energetic speech, in the course of which he said : — 

We have declared the law, that man is capable of self- 
government, and possesses the inherent and indestructible 
right of altering, amending, and changing his form of govern- 
ment at his pleasure, and in furtherance of his happiness. 
We have sworn hostility against every form of tyranny over 
the mind of man. These truths we have made a part of the 
laws of nations. Despots combine and interfere by force 
and fraud, to prevent the erection of republican institutions 
by a nation struggling successfully against its local usurping 
oppressor, for independence. Fidelity to our principles and 
institutions demands that we prevent such interference by 
solemnly proclaiming that the laws of nations and humanity 
SHALL BE PRESERVED iuviolatc and sacred. In the per- 
formance of this duty the faint-hearted may falter; the 
domestic despot and cold diplomatist may linger behind ; 
the man of world-extended and fearful traffic may hesitate ; 
but the warm and great heart of the American masses will 
feel no moment of hesitation and doubt in defence of truth. 
The great Author of nations will find the means to carry out 
His wise designs. How glorious our destiny, if to us is 
given the solemn charge of carrying into effect the beneficent 
purposes of Heaven in the establishment upon earth of uni- 
versal liberty, universal education, universal happiness, and 
peace. 

When Governor Johnston had concluded with a very 
cordial welcome, Kossuth replied as follows : — 

Senators and Representatives of Pennsylvania. — 
I came with confidence, I came with hope to the United 
States — with the confidence of a man who trusts to the 
certainty of principles, knowing that where freedom, is sown, 



148 AMERICA IS NOT LESS AMERICAN 

there generosity grows — with the hope of a man w4io knows 
that there is life in his cause, and that where there is life there 
must be a future yet. Still hope is only an instinctive throb 
with which Nature's motherly care comforts adversity. We 
often hope without knowing why, and like a lonely wanderer 
on a stormy night, direct our weary steps towards the first 
glimmering window light, uncertain whether we are about to 
knock at the door of a philanthropist or of a heartless egotist. 
But the hope and confidence, with which I came to the United 
States was not such. There was a knowledge of fact in it. 
I did not know what j)ersons it might be my fate to meet, but I 
knew that meet I should with two \Wm^ pinnciples — with that 
of Freedom and that of National Hospitality. 

Both are political principles here. Freedom is expansive like 
the light : it loves to spread itself: and hospitality here in this 
happy land, is raised out of the narrow circle of private virtue 
into political wisdom. As you, gentlemen, are the representa- 
tives of your people, so the people of the United States at 
large are representative of European humanity — a congrega- 
tion of nations assembled in the hospitable Hall of American 
liberty. Your people is linked to Europe, not only by the 
common tie of manhood — not only by the communicative 
spii'it of liberty — not only by the commercial intercourse, but 
by the sacred ties of blood. The people of the United States 
is Europe transplanted to America. And it is not Hungary's 
w^oes alone — it is the cause of all Europe which I am come to 
plead. Where was ever a son, who in his own happy days, 
could indifferently look at the sufi'e rings of his mother, whose 
heart's blood is running in his very veins ? And Europe is the 
mother of the United States. 

1 hope to God, that the people of this glorious land is, 
and will ever be, fervently attached to this their free, great, 
and happy home. I hope to God that w^hatever tongue they 
speak, they are and wdll ever be American, and nothing but 
American. And so they must be, if they will be free — if 
they desire for their adopted home greatness and perpetuity. 
Should once the citizens of the United States cease to be 
Americans, and become again English, Irish, German, 
Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, French — America would 



BY CARING FOR EUROPE. 149 

soon cease to be what it is now — freedom elevated to the 
proud position of a power on earth. 

But while I hope that all the people of the United States 
will never become anything but Americans ; and that even its 
youngest adopted sons, though fresh with sweet home- 
recollections, will know here no South, no North, no East, 
and no West — nothing but the whole country, the common 
nationality of freedom — in a word, America; still I also 
know that blood is blood — that the heart of the son must 
beat at the contemplation of his mother's sufferings. These 
were the motives of my confident hope. And here in this 
place I have the happy right to say, God the Almighty is 
with me; my hopes are about to be realized. Sir, it is a 
gratifying view to see how the generous sympathy of indi- 
viduals for the cause which I respectfully plead is rising into 
Public Opinion. But nowhere had I the happy lot to see 
this more clearly expressed than in this great commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania, the mighty " hey done State" of the Union. 
The people of Harrisburg spoke first : no city before had 
so distinctly articulated the public sympathy into acknow- 
ledged principles. It has framed tlie sympathy of generous 
instinct into a political shape. I will for ever remember it 
with fervent gratitude. Then came the Metropolis'*^ — a hope 
and a consolation by its very name to the oppressed — the 
sanctuary of American Independence, where the very bells 
speak prophecy — which is now sheltering more inhabitants 
than all Pennsylvania did, when, seventy-five years ago, the 
prophetic beU of Independence Hall announced to the world 
that free America was born ; which now, with the voice 
of thunder, will, I hope, tell the world that the doubtful 
life of that child has unfolded itself into a mighty power on 
earth. Yes, after Harrisburg, the metropolis spoke, a 
flourishing example of freedom's self-developing energy ; and 
after the metropolis, now so mighty a centre of nations, and 
fit ally of international law — next came Pittsburg, the im- 
mense manufacturing workshop, alike memorable for its 
moral power and its natural advantages, which made it a 

* Philadelphia {brotherly love) is evidently intended. *' Metro- 
polis " strictly means mother city, not chief city. 



150 WEIGHT OF AMERICAN RESOLVES. 

link with the great valley of the West, a cradle of a new 
world, which is linked in its turn to the old world by bound- 
less agricultural interests. And after the people of Pennsyl- 
vania have thus spoken, here now I stand in the temple of 
this people's sovereignty, with joyful gratitude acknowledg- 
ing the inestimable benefits of this public reception, w^here- 
with the elected of Pennsylvania, entrusted with the Legislative 
and Executive power of the sovereign people, gather into one 
garland the public opinion, and with the authority of their 
high position, announce loudly to the world the principles, 
the resolution, and the will of the two millions of this great 
Commonwealth. Sir, the words your Excellency has ho- 
noured me with will have their weight throughout the world. 
The jeering smile of the despots, which accompanied my 
w^andering, wall be changed, at the report of these proceed- 
ings, to a frown which may yet cast fresh mourning over 
families, as it has cast over mine ; nevertheless, the afflicted 
will wait to be consoled by the dawn of public happiness. 
From the words wliich your Excellency spoke, the nations 
will feel double resolution to shake off the yoke of despotism. 
The proceedings of to-day will, moreover, have their weight 
in the development of public opinion in other States of your 
united Eepublic. Governor ! I plead no dead cause. 
Europe is no corpse ; it has a future yet, because it wills. 
Sir, from the window of your room, which your hospitality 
has opened to me, I saw suspended a musket and a powder- 
horn, and this motto — " Material Aid." And I believe that 
the Speaker of the House of Eepresentatives of Pennsylvania 
is seated in that chair whence the Declaration of American 
Independence was signed. The first is w^hat Europe wants 
in order to have the success of the second. Permit me to 
take this for a happy augury ; and allow me with the plain 
words of an earnest mind to give you the assurance of my 
country's warm, everlasting gratitude, in which, upon the 
basis of our restored independence, a wide field will be 
opened to mutual benefit, by friendly commercial intercourse, 
ennobled by the consciousness of imparted benefit on your 
side and by the pleasant duty of gratitude on the side of 
Hungary, which so well deserves your generous sympathy. 



151 



XXII.— ON THE PEESENT WEAKNESS OF DESPOTISM. 

[^Sjpeech at the Sarrishv/ifg Banquet.'] 

About three hundred persons sat down to dinner, a large 
portion of them members of the legislature. Governor John- 
ston presided, assisted by Ex-Senator Cameron. A toast com- 
plimentary to Governor Johnston having been drunk with great 
enthusiasm, the Governor briefly responded. After returning 
his thanks for the compliment, he alluded to the mission 
of Kossuth. The great Magyar came here not for sympathy 
alone, but for aid for the cause of republican freedom. He 
not only wanted that, but encouragement of our government, 
in aid of the cause of down-trodden Hungary. No pro- 
fession, but action was wanted ; and he exhorted his hearers 
never to cease acting, until the government took the high 
ground necessary to secure to Hungary the simple justice she 
demanded. In conclusion he gave the third toast : 

" Hungary — Betrayed, but not subdued ; her Constitution violated, 
her people in chains, her chief in exile. The star of freedom will yet 
shine through the dark night of her adversity." 

Kossuth, in response, opened by lamenting that the per- 
petual claims upon his time, and the pressure of sorrowful 
tidings on his heart, made it impossible for him to study 
how to address them suitably. He proceeded to say : 

But to what purpose is eloquence here ? Have you not 
anticipated my wishes ? Have you not sanctioned my prin- 
ciples ? Are you not going on to action, as generous men do^ 
who are conscious of their power and of theii* aim ? Well, to 
what purpose then is eloquence here ? I have only to thank 
— and that is more eloquently told by a warm grasp of the 
hand than by all the skilful arrangement of words. 

I beg therefore your indulgence for laying before you some 
mere facts, which perhaps may contribute to strengthen your 
conviction that the people of the United States, in bestowing 
its sympathy upon my cause, does not support a dead cause, 
but one which has a life, and whose success is rationally sure. 

Let me before all cast a glance at the enemy. And let 



152 STRENGTH OF THE DESPOTS 

those imposed upon by the attitude of despotism in 1852, 
consider how much stronger it was in 1847-8. Prance was 
lulled by Louis Philippe's politics, of " peace at any price," 
into apathy. Men believed in the solidity of his government. 
No heart-revolting cruelty stirred the public mind. No 
general indignation from offended national self-esteem pre- 
vailed. The stability of the public credit encouraged the 
circulation of capital, and by that circulation large masses of 
industrious poor found, if not contentment, at least daily 
bread. The King was taken for a prudent man ; and the 
private morality of his family cast a sort of halo around his 
house. The spirit of revolution was reduced to play the 
meagre game of secret associations ; not seconded by any 
movement of universal interest — the spirit of radical innova- 
tion was restrained into scientific polemic, read by few and 
understood by fewer. There was a faith in the patriotic 
authority of certain men, whose reputation was that of being 
liberal. One part of the nation lived on from day to day, 
without any stirring passion, in entire passiveness ; the other 
believed in gradual improvement and progress, because it had 
confidence in the watchful care of partizan leaders. The 
combat of Parliamentary eloquence was considered to be a 
storm in a glass of water, and the highest aspiration of parties 
was to oust the ministry and take their place. And yet the 
prohibition of a public banquet blew asunder the whole com- 
plex like mere chaff. 

Germany was tranquil, because the honest pretensions or 
the ambition of her statesmen were satisfied by the open lists 
of parliamentary eloquence. The public life of the nation 
had gained a field for itself in Legislative debates — a benefit 
not enjoyed for centuries. The professors being transferred 
to the legislative floor, and the college to the parliament, the 
nation was gratified by improvements in the laws, and by the 
oratory of her renowned men, who never failed to flatter the 
national vanity. It believed itself to be really in full speed 
of greatness, and listened contented and quiet — like an intelli- 
gent audience to an interesting lecture — even in respect to the 
unity of great Germany. The custom-association (Zoll- 
verein) became an idol of satisfied national vanity, and of 



AT THE CLOSE OF 1847. 153 

cheerful hopes ; science and art were growing fast ; specula- 
tive researches of political economy met an open field in 
social life • men conscious of higher aims wandered afar into 
new homes, despairing to find a field of action in their native 
laud. Material improvement was the ruling word, and the 
loftj spirit of freedom was blighted by the contact of small 
interests. 

And yet a prohibited banquet at Paris shook the very 
foundation of this artificial tranquillity, and the princely 
thrones of Germany trembled before the rising spirit of free- 
dom, though it was groping in darkness, because unconscious 
of its aim. 

Italy — fair, unfortunate Italy — looking into the mirror of 
its ancient glory, heaved with gloomy grief; but the sky of 
the heaven was as clear and blue above, as it ever was since 
creation's dawn ; and it sung like the bird in a cage placed 
upon a bough of the blooming orange tree. And then 
Pius IX, placing himself at the head of Italian regeneration, 
became popular as no man in Eome since Hienzi's time. 
In 1848 men heard with surprise, on the coast of the Adriatic, 
my name coupled in vivas with the name of Pius IX. 
But the sarcasm of Madame De Stael — that in Italy men 
became women^-was still believed true ; so that too many 
of the Italians themselves despaired of conquering Austria 
without Charles Albert. 

Austria had not for centuries, and Prussia never yet has, 
experienced what sort of a thing a revolution is, and the 
falling of the vault of the sky would have been considered 
less improbable than a popular revolution in Berlin or Vienna, 
where Metternich ruled in triumphant proud security. 

The house of Austria was considered as a mighty power 
on earth ; respected, because thought necessary to Europe 
against the preponderance of Eussia. No people under the 
dominion of this dynasty, had a national army, and all were 
divided by absurd rivalries of language, kept up by Metter- 
nich's Machiavelism. The nation were divided ; none of 
them was conscious of its strength, but all were aware of the 
united strength of a disciplined and large imperial army, the 
regiments of which had never yet fought one against another, 

7 § 



154 HUNGARY IN 1847. 

and never yet ^had broken the spell of the black and yellow 
flag, by tearing it to pieces with their own hands. 

And yet, when Paris stirred and I made a mere speech in 
the Hungarian Parliament, the House of Austria was presently 
at the mercy of the people of Vienna ; Metternich was driven 
away, and liis absolutism replaced by a promise of constitu- 
tional life. 

In Gallicia the odium connected with the despotic Austrian 
rule had, by satanic craft, been thrown upon those classes 
which represent the ancient Polish nationality ; and the well- 
deserved hatred of aristocratic oppression, though living only 
in traditional remembrances, had prevailed in the sentiments 
of the common people over the hatred against Austria, though 
despotic and a stranger ; so much so, that, to triumph over 
the ill-advised, untimely movement of 1846, Austria had 
nothing to do but open the field to murder, by granting a two 
dollars' reward for every head of a Polish land proprietor. 

And in Hungary the people of every race was equally ex- 
cluded from all political right — from any share of constitu- 
tional life. The endeavours of myself and my friends for 
internal improvements — for emancipation of the peasantry — 
for the people's restoration to its national rights in civil, 
political, social, and religious respects, were cramped by the 
Hapsburg policy. But the odium of this cramping was 
thrown by Austria upon our own conservative party ; and 
thus our national force was divided into antagonistic elements. 
Besides, the idea of Panslavism and of national rivalries, 
raised by Russia and fostered by Austria, diverted the excite- 
ment of the public mind from the development of common 
political freedom. And Hungary had no national army. Its 
regiments were filled with foreign elements and scattered over 
foreign countries, while our own country was guarded with 
well-disciplined foreign troops. And what was far worse than 
all this, Hungary, by long illegalities corrupted in its own 
character, deprived of its ancient heroic stamp, germanized in 
its saloons, sapped in its cottages and huts, impressed with 
the unavoidable fatality of Austrian sovereignty, and the 
knowledge of Austrian pov/er, secluded from the attention 
of the world, which was scarcely aware of its existence, — 



PHESENT STATE OF EUROPE. 155 

Hungary had no hope in its national future, because it had no 
consciousness of its strength, and was highly monarchical in 
its inclinations, and generous in its allegiance to the King. 
No man dreamed of the possibility of a revolution there, and 
he who would have suggested it would only have gained the 
reputation of a madman. 

Such was the condition of Europe in the first half of 
February, 1848. Never yet seemed the power of despots more 
steady, more sure. Yet, one month later, every throne on the 
continent trembled except the Czar's. The existence of 
dynasties depended upon the magnanimity of their people, 
and Europe was all on fire. 

And in what condition is Europe now ? Every man on 
earth is aware that things cannot endure as they are. 'For- 
merly millions believed that a peaceful development of consti- 
tutional monarchy was the only future reserved for Europe. 
Now nobody on the European continent any longer believes that 
constitutional monarchy can have a future there. Absolutist 
reaction goes with all that arrogance which revolts every sen- 
timent, and infuriates the very child in its mother's arms. 
The promise, the word, the oath of a king are beconie equi- 
valent to a lie and to perjury. Faith in the morality of kings 
is plucked out, even to the last root, from the people's heart. 

The experiment of constitutional concessions was thought 
dangerous to the dynasties, as soon as they became aware that 
the people of Europe is no imbecile child, that can be lulled 
to sleep by mockery ; but that it will have reality. Thus the 
kings on the greater part of the continent, throwing away the 
mask of liberal affectations, deceived every expectation, broke 
every oath, and embarked with a full gale upon the open sea 
of unrestricted despotism. They know that Love they can 
no longer get ; so we have been told openly, that they will not 
have Love, but Money, to maintain large armies, and keep 
the world in servitude. On the other hand, the nations, 
assailed in their moral dignity and material welfare, degraded 
into a flock of sheep kept only to be shorn — equally with the 
kings detest the mockery of constitutional royalty which has 
proved so ruinous to them. 

Eoyalty has lost its sacredness in France, Germany, Italy, 



156 CERTAINTY OP A NEW UPRISING. 

Austria, and Hungary. Both parties equally recognize tha t 
the time has come when the struggle of principles must be 
decided. Absolutism or republicanism — the Czar or the 
principles of America — there is no more compromise, no 
more truce possible. The two antagonist principles must 
meet upon the narrow bridge of a knife-edge, cast across the 
deep gulf which is ready to swallow him who falls. It is a 
struggle for life and death. 

That is the condition of the European continent in general. 
A great, temble, bloody uprising is unavoidable. That is 
known and felt by every one. And every sound man knows 
equally well that the temporary success of Louis Napoleon's 
usui'pation has only made the terrible crisis more unavoid- 
able. Ye men of ''peace at any price," do not shut yourej^es 
wilfully to the finger of God pointing to the meney tekel, 
ttpharsin, written with gigantic letters upon the sky of 
Europe. Despots never yield to justice ; mankind, inspired 
with the love of freedom, will not yield up its manhood 
tamely. Peace is impossible. 

Gentlemen, the success of my mission here may ensure the 
victory of freedom ; may prevent torrents of martyrs' blood ; 
may weaken the earthquake of impending war ; and restore a 
solid peace. But be sure, the certainty of the European 
struggle does not depend upon your generous support ; nor 
would my failure here even retard the outbreak of the 
hurricane. 

Should we, not meeting here with that support, which your 
glorious Kepublic in its public capacity and your generous 
citizens in their private capacity can afford without jeopar- 
dizing your own welfare and your own interest (and assuredly 
it never came into my mind to desire more) — should we, 
meeting with no support here, be crushed again, and abso- 
lutism consolidate its power upon the ruins of murdered 
nations, I indeed cannot but believe that it would become a 
historical reproach of conscience, lying like an incubus upon 
the breast of the people of the United States from generation 
to generation. I mean, the idea, that had you not withheld 
that support which you might have afforded consistently with 
your own interest, Hungary perhaps would be a free, flourish- 



WEAKNESS OF AUSTRIA, 157 

ing country, instead of being blotted out from the map ; and 
Europe perhaps free, and absolutist tyranny swept from the 
earth. 

You then would in vain shed a tear of compassion over 
our sad fate, and mourn over the grave of nations : nor only 
so ; but the victory of absolutism could not fail to be felt 
even here in your mighty and blessed home. You would first 
feel it in your commercial intercourse, and ere long you would 
become inevitably entangled ; for as soon as the Czar had 
secured the submission of all Europe, he would not look 
indifferently upon the development of your power, which is 
an embodiment of republican principles. 

I am not afraid to answer the question, as to what are our 
means and chances of success — but prudence commands me 
to be discreet. Still, some considerations I may suggest. 

The spell of Austria is broken. It is now notorious that the 
might of the dynasty, though disciplined, well provided, and 
supported by deluded races, which had been roused to the fury 
of extermination against us — it is now notorious that aU this 
satanically combined power proved unable to withstand the 
force of Hungary, though we were surprized and unprepared, 
and had no army and no arms, no ammunition, no money, 
no friends, and were secluded and forsaken by the whole 
world. It was proved that Austria could not conquer us 
Magyars, when we were taken unaware ; who can believe that 
we could not match her now that we are aware and prede- 
termined ? Yes, if unprepared in material resources, we are 
yet prepared in self-consciousness and mutual trust ; we have 
learned by experience what is required for our success. 

In former times Hungary was the strength of Austria. 
Now, Austiia is weak, because it has occupied Hungary. It 
was strong by the unity of its army, the power of which was 
founded upon the confidence in this unity. That confidence 
is broken, since one part of that army raised the tri- colour 
flag, and cast to the dust the double-headed eagle, the black 
and yellow flag, which was the emblem of the army's unity. 

Formerly the Austrian army believed that it was strong 
enough to uphold the throne ; now it knows that it is nothing 
by itself, and rests only upon the support of the Czar. That 



158 NEW CONFIDENCE OF THE NATIONS. 

spirit-depressing sentiment is so diffused among the troops, 
that, only take the reliance upon Eussia away, or make it 
doubtful whether Eussia will interfere or not, and the Austrian 
army will disperse and fall asunder almost without any 
fight ; because it knows that it has its most dangerous 
enemies within its own ranks ; and is so far from having any 
^cement, that no man, himself attached to that perjured 
dynasty, can trust the man beside him in the ranks, but 
watches every movement of his arm. In such an army there 
is no hope for tyrants. 

The old soldiers feel humiliated by the issue of our struggle. 
They are offended by having no share in the reward thrown 
away on despised court favourites. The old Croat regiments 
feel outraged in their national honour by being deceived in 
their national expectations. The recruits brought with them 
recollections of their bombarded cities and of the oppression 
of their families; and in that army are 140,000 Hungarians 
who fought under our tri-coloured flag against Austria, and 
whose burning feelings of national wrong are inspired by the 
glorious memory of their victories. 

Oh, had we had in 1848 such an army of disciplined sol- 
diers as Austria itself keeps now for us, never had one Cos- 
sack trod the soil of Hungary, and Europe would now be free. 
Or, let Austria dismiss them, and they will be disciplined 
soldiers at home. The trumpet of national resurrection will 
reach them wherever they are. 

Hungary has the conviction of her strength. The formerly 
hostile races, all oppressed like us, now feel themselves to have 
been deceived, and unite with us. We have no opposite party 
in the nation. Some there are, ambitious men, or some 
incorrigible aristocrats perhaps : but these are no party ; they 
always turn towards the sun, and they melt away like snow 
in March. 

And besides Hungary, the people in Austria too, in Italy, 
in Prussia, in all Germany, is conscious of its strength. 
Every large city on the continem has been in the power of 
the people, and has had to be regained by bombardings and 
by martial law. Italy has redeemed its heroic character, at 
Milan, Venice, Brescia, and Eome — all of them immortal 



FINANCIAL TROUBLES OF DESPOTISM. 159 

pages in Italian history, glorious sources of inspiration, 
heroism, and self-conscious strength. And now they know 
their aim, and are united in their aim, and burn to show to 
the world that the spirit of ancient Eome again rises in 
them. 

And then take into consideration the financial paii;. 
Without money there is no war. Now, the nations, when 
once engaged in the war, will find means enough for home- 
support of the war in the rich resources of their own land ; 
whereas the despots lose the disposal of those resources by 
the outbreak of insurrection, and are reduced entirely to 
foreign loans, which no emperor of Austria will find again in 
any new revolution. 

And, mark well, gentlemen, every friendly step by which 
your great republic and its generous people testifies its 
lively interest for our just cause, adding to the prospects of 
success, diminishes the credit of the despots, and by em- 
barrassing their attempts to find loans, may be of decisive 
weight in the issue. 

Though absolutism was much more favourably situated 
in 1847 than in 1851, it was overtaken by the events of 
1848, when, but for the want of unity and concert, the 
liberal party must have triumphed everywhere. That unity 
and concert is now attained ; why should not absolutism in 
1852 be as easily shaken as in 1848 ? 

The liberal cause is stronger everywhere, because conscious 
of its aim and prepared. Absolutism has no more bayonets 
now than in 1848. Without the interference of Eussia our 
success is not only probable, but is almost sure. 

And as to Eussia — remember, that if at such a crisis she 
thinks of subduing Hungary, she has Poland to occupy, 
Finland to guard, Turkey to watch, and Circassia to fight. 

Herein is the reason why I confidently state, that if the 
United States declare that a new intervention of Eussia will 
be considered by your glorious republic a violation of the 
law of nations, that declaration will be respected, and 
Eussia will not interfere. 

Be pleased to consider the consequence of such a renewed 
interference, after the passive acceptance of the first has 



160 WEIGHTS TO DEPRESS RUSSIA. 

proved so fatal to Europe, and so dangerous even to England 
itself. We can scarcely doubt, that, if ever Russia plans a 
new invasion, England could not forbear to encourage Turkey, 
not to lose again the favourable opportunity to shake off the 
preponderance of Russia. I have lived in Turkey. I know 
what enthusiasm exists there for that idea, and how popular 
such a war would be. Turkey is a match for Russia on the 
continent. The weak point of Turkey lies in the nearness 
of Sevastopol, the Russian harbour and arsenal, to Constanti- 
nople. Well, an English fleet, or an American fleet, or both 
joined, stationed at the mouth of the Bosphorus, may easily 
prevent this danger without one cannon's shot ; and if this 
be prevented, Turkey alone is a match for Russia. And 
Turkey would not stand alone. The brave Circassians, 
triumphant through a war of ten years, would send down 
80,000 of their unconquerable horsemen to the plains of 
Moscow. And Poland would rise, and Sweden would re- 
member Finland and Charles the XII. With Hungary in 
the rear, screened by this very circumstance from her invasion, 
and Austria fallen to pieces from want of foreign support, 
Russia must respect your protest in behalf of international 
law, or else she will fall never to rise again. 

Gentlemen, I thank you for the patience with which you 
have listened to this exposition — long and tedious, because 
I had no time to be brief. And begging leave to assure 
you of my lasting gratitude for all the generous favours you 
have been and will yet be pleased to bestow upon my cause, 
let me proclaim my fervent wishes in this sentiment : 

" Pennsylvania, the Keystone State — May it, by its legiti- 
mate influence upon the destinies of this mighty power on 
earth, and by the substantial generosity of its citizens, soon 
become the keystone of European independence." 

Hon. J. H. Walker, Speaker of the Senate, and several 
other speakers followed, all decidedly sympathizing with the 
Hungarians, and advocating intervention for non-intervention. 

The speaking continued until after midnight. 



161 



XXIII.— AaENCIES OF RUSSIAN ASCENDENCY AND 
SUPREMACY. 

\_Pittshurg Festival, Jan. 26^^.] 

Kossuth was received in the Masonic Hall, which was 
filled to overflowing, ilfter an eloquent address to him from 
the Chairman, A. W. Loomis, Esq., he replied : 

Sir, The highly interesting instruction which your kindness 
has afforded me about that new and wonderful world of the 
West, in the entrance of which I now stand, impresses me 
with a presentiment of unlooked for events. 

Since I have been in the United States, I have felt as if 
my guardian angel whispered, that in the West the hopes of 
my bleeding country will be realized. It was an unconscious 
instinct, — a ray shooting above the horizon from the yet 
unseen sun. You, sir, have shown me the sun itself in full 
majesty. You have transformed my instinct into conviction. 
Here then, upon the threshold of the West, I bow with awe 
and joy, as the fireworshipper of old Persia to the source _of 
life and light. 

It is indeed joyful, sir, as you said, to see politicians, 
sectarians, philanthropists of all classes uniting in spontaneous 
sympathy for a cause pleaded by a stranger. I recognize in 
it the bounty of Providence. 1 see the truth revealed, that 
as magnetism pervades the universe, so there is a sentiment, 
which, independent of party affections and bubbling passion, 
pervades the breast of mankind; and that is, the love of 
Freedom, Justice, and Right. The chord of Freedom 
passes through all hearts, and whoever touches it, elicits 
harmony. The harmony is in the chord, not in him who 
touches it. There is no skill in the breeze which sweeps 
over the ^^olian harp, yet a sweet harmony bursts forth from 
its vibrations. The harmony of sympathy which I meet is 
the most decisive proof, gentlemen, that the cause which I 
plead is indeed the cause of liberty, the love of which gushes 
up spontaneously in human bosoms. 

Gentlemen, the cause of Hungary, even were it not the 
cause of Europe and of all earthly freedom, deserves your 
sympathy and active protection. Like other free nations, 
we were brave. The Austrian dynasty was perjured and 



162 HUNGARY IS THE TEST OF A PRINCIPLE. 

treacherous ; and our bravest bled on the scaffold. Tyrannies 
are cruel: only the people knows how to be generous in 
victory. — Let me rather say, the People toas generous : for 
the future I hope it will be just. I hope this, not because 
there is any deep truth in the Irish poet, who sang 
*' Revenge on a tyrant is sweetest of all : " 

Not for that reason. But I hope that the oppressed nations 
will not again stop half way, and sacrifice their future to 
untimely generosity ; for they have all paid too cruelly for the 
lesson, that ivitJi tyrants tliere is no faith. So there must be 
no dealing with them. 

Yet, Gentlemen, it is not for Hungary's worth, nor for 
Hungary's sujfferings that I claim protection for her; but 
because as in her the law of nations has been strikingly 
trampled down, so in her this law must be vindicated. Else, 
the league of despots will be able to enforce it as a precedent 
against all free nations ; no law will henceforth be sure on 
earth, and oppression will rule the world. 

It is indeed a new doctrine that all despots have a right to 
interfere with every attempt of a people to regulate its own 
institutions ; and that oppression in each separate nation is 
to be upheld by a foreign Czar. According to this, freedom 
and independence are everywhere proscribed, as inconsistent 
with the security of absolutism, — to which every other con- 
sideration is to yield. 

I have been indeed astonished to meet the reply, that the 
cause which I plead is not worthy of much consideration, 
" since, after all, it is only the cause of one country !'' 1 have 
read that the Borgias were wont to say, that Italy is like the 
artichoke, which must be eaten leaf by leaf. Let me tell those, 
with whom Hungary is but one leaf of the artichoke, that the 
despot who is allowed to nibble each leaf separately, will 
manage to dispose of the whole. 

My opponents say ; I myself confess my cause to be that 
of one country only, for in claiming "non-interference," I 
show my desire to abandon all other countries but my own 
to their oppressors ! I may be permitted to ask, — Is there 
any truth in the world which may not be distorted into a 
mockery ? 



RUSSIA LIES AS A RESERVE. 163 

Eussia is the strength of oppression. Her force in the 
background emboldens every petty tyrant and makes every 
oppressed nation despond : not because she is so very power- 
ful, but because all foresee distinctly that she will act un- 
shrinkingly in the tyrant's favour so soon as he needs it. 
We fought, beat, crushed the Austrian emperor, of course not 
without sacrifice. You know that your own brave Duquesne 
Greys lost in one action more than half their men. Now, if after 
a victory gained at such a price, Eussia steps in with a fresh 
force, well provided with every means of war, though that 
force be not such as one could not resist, it is formidable as 
a rearguard, falling fresh upon a nation exhausted with its 
very victories. Suppose that at the close of your own 
Mexican victories, you had had to meet a fresh host of 100,000 
well- disciplined men, what would have been the fate of your 
gallant army, which entered the city of Montezuma ? 

That is the key of Eussian preponderance. But consider 
the consequences of our defeat. Austria was restored, — not 
to its independent position — that is lost for ever ; but, to the 
position of a tyrant at home, obedient to the wink of his 
master abroad. Eelying on the precedent established by 
Eussia, — Naples, Spain, and degraded France interfered in 
EoME. After this, Austria and Prussia quarrelled for German 
supremacy, but before they drew the sword, went to the Czar 
for permission. The Czar at Warsaw replied : '^ I forbid you 
to quarrel. Eeconstruct the German confederacy of 1815, 
and add to it no constitutional element. Send your two 
armies to Hesse Cassel; crush the people who there resist 
by law the Grand Duke's attempt to overthrow the sworn 
Constitution. x\s to Schleswig Holstein, 1 want to have 
it reserved to Denmark, as a satrapy for my servant and 
nephew. The German confederacy having dared to coun- 
tenance its rebellion, shall be punished by having to request 
Austria to send an army against it." So ordered the Czar, 
and so it was done. And after it was done, the Czar ordered 
the withdrawal of the pageant of a Constitution, which in the 
hour of need the Emperor of Austria had promised to his 
empire. It was withdrawn. When thus every popular move- 
ment was crushed, every shadow of freedom withdrawn, the 



164 FREEDOM OR SLAVERY TO ALL 

scaffolds of Hungary and Italy saturated with blood, the 
prisons filled with martyrs, the exiles driven from every 
asylum in the European continent, and Germany reduced to 
a condition worse than when the Unholy Alliance was at the 
full tide, — then the Czar wrote an autograph letter to Louis 
Napoleon, the perjured President of France, assuring him of 
his imperial grace and benevolent support, if he would strike 
a deathblow to the French Eepublic. And Louis Napoleon 
struck the blow. 

Such are the results of the overwhelming preponderance of 
Eussia, imposed upon Europe by its interference in Hungary. 
Suppose now that I succeed in my sacred mission, — sacred, 
because it is the cause of law and of all the oppressed ; — 
suppose Eussian interference checked ; then Hungary will 
crush the tottering Austrian dynasty : Italy, delivered from 
foreign dominion, will sportively dispose of its petty tyrants. 
The nation of Austria will become free, and a valuable ingre- 
dient in German liberty. At the result of a glorious struggle 
in Hungary, burning shame will mount to the cheek of the 
French, and Louis Napoleon will be shaken off. 

Let interference by the combination of despots be checked, 
let nations become masters of their own fate, — and rely upon 
the magic power of your glorious example. Eepublican insti- 
tutions wiU spread as the light of the sun. Yes, gentlemen. 
It is not for one country that I ask your support. My ground 
is as broad as the world ; for it is the ground of eternal 
principles, common to all humanity. No man, on the pretext 
that his heart is with some other nation, — German, Italian, 
Pole, French ; no man, on the pretext that he is a Universal 
philanthropist, ought to refuse his sympathies to Hungary ; 
for its cause happens in this crisis to comprize the rest. If 
I were a Pole, a German, or an Italian, egotistically patriotic, 
I could not serve my country better than by attacking Eussia, 
the only substantial enemy. 

What would the petty princes of Germany have been in 
1848 without Prussia? and what was Prussia, when her 
capital was in the hands of the people, but for the certainty 
of the Czar's support ? What were the petty despots of Italy 
without Austria? and what was Austria, when her armies, 



TURNS ON THE POWER OF RUSSIA. 165 

driven from the soil of Hungary in a series of pitched battles, 
were so demoralized, that nothing but the treacherous dis- 
obedience of a general prevented our brave militia from 
extinguishing in Vienna and Olmutz the decrepid absolutism 
of the Hapsburgs? What hindered me from afterwards 
crushing it ? The intervention of Eussian despotism, — always 
the primal cause of evil. 

Absolutism has understood and declared, that its repose is 
impossible, whilst a free press and free institutions exist any 
where. Formerly the absolutists adhered to the principle of 
''legitimacy," or, the Divine right of an hereditary dynasty; 
and provided this false principle was respected, they did not 
object to the development of constitutions which preserved 
attachment to monarchies. But now they have thrown away 
their own principle of dynastical legitimacy, and have no rule 
but to oppress freedom everywhere. Whoever will join them 
in that work is welcome, though he be a usurper. Thus it 
came to pass, that Henry of Bourbon was rejected by the 
despots, while Louis Napoleon has received from the Czar an 
autograph letter of approval, and from Austria complimentary 
gifts. Will the United States remain inactive, while free 
institutions are systematically extinguished ? Can they look 
on indifferently, because seventy years ago it was a wise doc- 
trine, appropriate to their childhood, not to care about 
European politics ? 

It is publicly reported, that Eussia has decided to absorb 
Turkey ; and means to grant Italy to Austria ; Belgium, and 
the Ehenish provinces to France ; and the rest of Germany to 
Pmssia. The Czar, acting like the Persian Kings of old 
w^hen they sent garments of honour to their satraps, flings 
in the addition of a few provinces of kingdoms to their 
satrapies. 

And oh ! Almighty father of humanity ! is there no power 
on earth to stop this execrable annihilation of human and 
national rights, of freedom and independence ? — though there 
is a Eepublic powerful enough to do so — a Eepublic founded 
upon the very principles which the despotic powers have put 
under an inexorable ban ! 

Gentleman, I have dwelt perhaps too long on the condition 



166 RUSSIA KNOWS HER STRENGTH 

of Europe ; but it was necessary to show that though there 
be no Eussian eagles, painted over the public offices in 
Germany, Italy, France, still the Eussian frontier is really 
extended to the Atlantic. 

People of free America, beware, ere it be too late ! Hur- 
riedly and by sudden violence, all civil and religious liberty 
must, for the repose of absolutism, be trampled out of 
Europe ; and by more deliberate perpetration, by diplomacy, 
persuasion, and gold, the way must be prepared to trample it 
out elsewhere by ulterior violence. 

x\nd here I claim permission to say something about the 
most dangerous power of Eussia, its diplomacy. 

It is worthy of consideration that while Eussia starves her 
armies and underpays her officials, who live by peculation, 
still, abroad she devotes greater resources to her diplomacy 
than any other power has ever done. 

Acting on the maxim that ''men are not influenced by 
facts, but by opinions respecting facts " — not by " things as 
they are," but by " things as they are believed to be," she 
finds it easier and cheaper, through diplomatic agency to 
impress the world with a belief in a strength she has not, 
than to try to organize or attain that strength. 

And to come to that aim, Eussian diplomacy is not 
restricted to diplomatic proceedings. Brilliant saloons of, 
fascinating ladies, as well as marriages, are equally depart- 
ments of Eussian diplomacy. 

The secret service-money at the disposal of all other diplo- 
matists, is always limited, and has only been exceptionably 
used. But every Eussian diplomatist, in whom confidence is 
reposed, has unlimited credit, and is allowed to disburse any 
sum to achieve an adequate result. Their traditional experi- 
ence teaches them how to attain their point ; their discretion 
can be relied on, and they understand every possible means 
of reaching men directly and indirectly, pulling frequently the 
strings of thoroughly unconscious puppets. 

Constantinople is the great workshop of diplomatic skill, 
worthy of more close interest than has hitherto been be- 
stowed upon it from America — because there will be struck 
the most dreadful blow to the independence of Europe. In 



TO BE IN DIPLOMACY. 167 

Constantinople, wlien Eussia wishes to turn a grand vizier 
out of office, it does not attack him : it praises him rather, 
and spreads the rumour of having him in its pay ; and it is 
sure that foreign influential diplomatists will then turn out for 
it the hated grand vizier. When on the other hand a grand 
vizier is wavering in his position, and Eussia likes him to 
continue in office, it attacks him with ostentatious pub- 
licity. 

Eussia hates not always the man whom it appears to hate, 
and loves not always the man whom it appears to love. Eus- 
sian diplomacy is a subterraneous power, slippery like a snake, 
burrowing like the mole ; and when it has to come out in 
broad daylight, it watches to the left when it looks to the 
right. Eussia gives instructions never to allow her to be 
directly defended by the press. That would lead to discussion 
and further exposure. With regard to herself, she wants 
silence — the silence of the grave. But her agents devote 
months of scheming, and any sums required to attack her 
opponents, to get up discord, or the appearance of division 
amongst them, or to popularize any momentary view which 
suits her policy, and she delights in doing so through appa- 
rently hostile and therefore unsuspected agents. 

Thus Eussia is powerful by an army held ready as a rear- 
guard to support needy despots with ; powerful by its ascen- 
dancy over the European continent; powerful by having 
pushed other despots into extremities where they have lost all 
independent vitality, and cannot escape throwing themselves 
into the iron grasp of the Czar; but above all, Eussia is 
powerful by its secret diplomacy. Still this Colossus, gigantic 
as it appears to be — like to the idol 

« With front of brass but feet of clay," 

may be overturned — easily overturned, from its fragile 
pedestal, if the glorious Eepublic of the United States opposes 
to it, with resolute attitude, the Law of Nations, and does 
not abandon principles in favour of accom;plished criminal 
facts. 

The mournful condition of Hungary seems to be pointed 
out by Providence to the United States as an opportunity to 



168 RUSSIA TRIUMPHANT. 

save mankind from Eussia without any sacrifice at all; 
whereas if this opportunity be lost — I say it with the inspi- 
ration of prophecy — there are many here in this Hall who 
will yet see the day when the United States shall have to 
wrestle for life and death with all Europe absorbed by 
Russia. 

I know where I stand, gentlemen ; I know your power and 
the indomitable, heroic spirit of your people. It is not with 
the intention to create apprehension that I say this : the 
people of the United States fears nobody on earth. It may 
be that Russia, even after having absorbed Europe, will not 
dare to attack the United States directly. But it may be 
that it will dare even this. Some domestic dissension may 
come — (no nation is safe against it) — the passion of parti- 
cular interest may cause some momentary discord. Russia 
will foster it, by its secret diplomacy, to which nothing is 
sacred on earth ; and when irritation comes to the pitch, and 
the ties of affection become for a moment loose, then perhaps 
Russia may step in at a moment of interior weakness, from 
which not the greatest nations are exempt. Russia will begin 
by '' divido/' and will perhaps come to '' mpero'' All this 
may happen ; I can say neither yes nor no ; but one thing I 
am sure of, and that is, that Russia triumphant in Europe 
can and will attack you in your most vital interests, and can 
hurt you mortally, without even resorting to war. 

Be sure, gentlemen, so soon as Russia has consolidated its 
undisputed preponderance, the first step will be to exclude 
the commerce of America from Europe by a prohibitory 
system of custom duties. It will do it; it must do it. 
Firstly, because commerce is the convoy er of principles. That 
is more sure yet than what a gentleman of New York so 
eloquently said, — that " the steam engine is a democrat,^' 
Absolutism could not for a single moment rule Europe with 
security, if Europe remained in commercial intercourse with 
republican America. And secondly, Russia will exclude your 
trade from Europe, because (and let the great valley of the 
West mark it) because your immensely expanding agriculture 
is the most dangerous competitor to Russian wheat, or corn, 
in the markets of Europe. Either you must be excluded from 



WILL ENDANGER AMERICA. 169 

the trade with Europe, or Eussia cannot find a market for its 
com. 

If you ast, Jiow soon is such an exclusion of your produce 
from Europe by Eussian influence possible ? I reply : possible 
within a single year ; for within a year, if we cannot re- 
commence the struggle, Eussia may accomplish the partition 
of Europe. Principles can only be balanced by principles — 
absolutism by republican institutions — unrighteous inter- 
ference by the law of nations — despotism by civil and re- 
ligious liberty. This is the cause which I advocate. It is 
not the cause of Hungary alone ; it is yours — it is the world's. 
It has a determination as absolute and extreme as despotism. 

Hungary would have been too content, if Eussia had not 
interfered, merely to defend herself against Austria, the im- 
mediate instrument of her oppression. Now the independence 
of Europe, and the independence of Hungary with it, can 
only be secured on the Moskwa, and on the Neva, in the 
Kremlin, and in the great Hall of St. George. 

For this purpose, in which you yourselves are so vitally 
interested, we do not claim from you to fight our battles for 
us. Look to the nations of Europe, groaning under Eussian 
weight. Look, in the first line to Sweden, and from Sweden 
across Poland to Hungary, and from Hungary to Turkey, 
and to brave Circassia. Pronounce in favour of the law of 
nations, with the determination which shows that you mean 
to act, and, I say, Eussia will respect your declaration, or 
else it will have a war from Sweden down to Turkey and 
Circassia. So soon as it moves with 160,000 to 200,000 
men against Hungary (and with less it could not), all those 
nations will be aware that there is the last opportunity 
afi:'orded to them by Providence to shake off Eussia's yoke ; 
and they will avail themselves of this opportunity — be sure 
of it. The momentary fall of Hungary was too painful a 
lesson to them. 

But again I am answered, " in case of such a war you will 
be entangled in it." To this I say that you will have to fight 
a war single-handed and alone, within less than five years, 
against Eussia and all Europe, if you do not take the posi- 
tion which I humbly claim. But if you take this position, 



170 ON THE NEUTRALITY LAWS. 

the necessity of this war will be averted from you, and 
Eussian preponderance will be checked and your protestation 
respected, without having to go to war. Because there is 
another sanction which you may add to your protestation — a 
sanction powerful as a threat of war, and yet no war at all. 
That sanction will be, the declaration of Congress, that, as 
the intervention of a foreign power in the domestic affairs of 
any nation is a violation of the laws of nations, by the fact 
of such intervention your neutrality laws of 1818 are sus- 
pended in as far as the interfering or interference-claiming 
power is concerned. In other words, that the citizens of 
the United States are at liberty to follow their own inclina- 
tion in respect to such a foreign power which violates the 
laws of nations. 

This sanction would be sufficient, because the enterprizing 
spirit of your high-minded people is too well known not to 
be feared by all the despots of the world. 

Your laws, which forbid your citizens to partake in an 
armed expedition abroad, are founded upon the sentiment, 
that to a foreign power with which you are on terms of amity 
the regards of friendship are due. But you, without becom- 
ing inconsistent with your own fundamental principles, cannot 
consider yourself to be in good friendship with a power which 
violates the laws of nations : so you may well withdraw the 
regards of friendship from it without resorting to war. 
Between friendship and hostility there is yet a middle position 
— that of being neither friend nor enemy — therefore permitting 
to every private individual to act as he pleases. 

Thus the conditional recall of your neutrality laws would 
enforce the respect to your protestation without bringing 
your country into the moral obligation to maintain your 
protestation by war. I hope those who share my principles, 
but hesitate to pronounce, on account of the possibility of a 
war, will be pleased to consider this humble suggestion, and 
v/ill see, that with my principles war will be averted from the 
United States, and by opposing my principles the United 
States will soon be forced into dangerous difficulties, out of 
which they cannot be extricated but by a war, which they 
will have to fight single-handed and alone. 



ENVOY FROM MASSACHUSETTS. 171 

[After this, Kossuth proceeded to speak on CatJiolicism : 
but this subject is treated afterwards more amply in his 
speech at St. Louis, against the Jesuits.] 



While Kossuth was addressing his audience at Pittsburg, a 
special envoy from Massachusetts arrived, Mr. ^Erastus Hopkins 
of Northampton, one of the Eepresentatives of the State- 
legislature. At the vote of the Legislature, the Governor 
(Jan. 15th) deputed Mr. Hopkins to convey to Kossuth a 
solemn public invitation ; and at the close of Kossuth's speech 
(Jan 27th) permission was granted by the President of the 
evening to allow Mr. Hopkins's credentials to be read ; upon 
which, that gentleman said : — 

*' Mr. President, after the soul-stirring proceedings of this 
afternoon,! dare hardly venture to obtrude upon your attention. 
It was indeed very far from my expectation, when I came a 
pilgrim on a toilsome journey at this inclement season of the 
year, that I would be enabled to mingle the congratulations of 
the citizens of the ' Old Bay State' to Governor Kossuth 
with those of the people of Alleghany county. But Sir, my 
message, although not addressed to this meeting, is addressed 
to one, whom we, in common with you, love, and whom we 
all delight to honour." 

Turning to Kossuth, Mr. Hopkins then addressed him as 
follows : 

" Governor Kossuth : I am directed by his Excellency the 
Governor of Massachusetts, to present to you the accompanying 
resolve of the Legislature, inviting you to visit their capital 
during the present session. The resolve is in fact, no less than 
in its terms, in the name and in behalf of the 'people of the 
commonwealth. 

'' Having with this announcement delivered to you the 
documents entrusted to my charge, I must be considered as 
having exhausted my official functions. Yet sir, having had 
the honour of introducing the resolve to the Legislature of 
the Massachusetts [cheers], and witnessing with pleasure the 
unanimous and instant concurrence of her four hundred repre- 
sentatives [renewed cheers], I will venture to add a few words 



172 INVITATION TO KOSSUTH. 

beyond the record, — only such words however as cannot fail 
to be consonant with the sentiment and hearts of her people. 
'' The people of Massachusetts would have you accept this 
act of her constituted authorities as no unmeaning compliment. 
Never, in her history as an independent State, with one single 
and illustrious exception, has Massachusetts tendered such a 
mark of respect to any other than the chief magistrates of 
these United States. And even in the present instance, 
much as she admires your patriotism, your eloquence, your 
untiring devotedness and zeal, — deeply as she is moved by 
your plaintive appeals and supplications in behalf of your 
native and oppressed land, — greatly as she is amazed by the 
irrepressible elasticity with which you rise from under the heel 
of oppression, with fortitude increased under sufferings, with 
assurance growing stronger as the darkness grows deeper 
[cheers], still, it is not one or all these qualities combined 
that can lead her to swerve from her dignity as an inde- 
pendent State to the mere worship of man. [Applause.] No ! 
But it is because she views you as the advocate and repre- 
sentative of certain gve^it jp?rnciples which constitute her own 
vitality as a State ; — because she views you as the represen- 
tative of human rights and freedom in another and far distant 
land, — it is because she views you as the rightful but exiled 
Governor of a people, whose past history and whose recent 
deeds show them to be worthy of some better future than that 
of Eussian tyranny and Austrian oppression, — that she seeks 
to welcome you to her borders ; that she seeks to attest to a 
gazing world that to the cause of freedom she is not insensible, 
and that to the oppression of tyrants she is not indifferent." 

Mr. Hopkins then proceeded to recount the public glories 
of Massachusetts, which he summed up in " Eeligion, Educa- 
tion, and Preedom, — a tricolour for the world." He avowed 
Massachusetts to be "the birthplace of American liberty;" 
and stated that her government is carried on in 322 cities 
and townships, literally democratic assemblies, which levy 
their own taxes, sustain their own schools, police, tribunals, 
&c., and receive and pay local funds four or five times larger 
than those of the State treasury. " The seat of Government," 
said he, " is a fiction in Massachusetts, save as it signifies the 



TRUE RELIGION IS FREEDOM. 173 

hearts of the people. Come to her borders ; witness the 
truth of all and more than I have uttered; as you shall find it 
attested by our institutions, by the plenitude of our hospi- 
tality, and by the acclamations of one million souls." 
Kossuth replied briefly, with thanks and cordial assent. 



CXXIY.^EEPLY TO THE PITTSBUEGH CLERaY. 

"^—^ ' lJan.26th.'] 

The substance of his speech is reported as follows : — 
He said that he received with a thankful heart this testi- 
monial of respect and welcome from the reverend ministers 
of the Gospel, whose hearts and minds were deeply imbued 
with regard and desire for truth. He had been taught to 
reverence the Word of God, because it guaranteed freedom 
to man ; and there was nothing more intimately associated 
with the idea of freedom than the right of every mind to 
search for truth in its own way — the right of private judg- 
ment. Therefore in receiving the approbation of so reverend 
and learned a body, he felt that he received the approbation 
of religion itself ; and as if an angel voice from heaven had 
declared to him — '' The cause you plead has foimd favour 
before Heaven. You may encounter hostility ; you may be 
overtaken by calumny ; you may endure sufferings, and trials, 
and temptations ; you may even suffer martyrdom ; — but the 
cause will triumph. Trust to Him who strengthened the 
arm of David against the mighty Goliath ; and learn to say 
in truth : Lord, thy will be done !" When he thought thus, 
and felt thus, he was not weak, but strong. The sufferings 
and trials which he had endured had strengthened his body, 
even as the holy influences of religion had strengthened his 
soul. He was not left as the fragile flower, that remained 
bowed and bent before the blast ; for he could now look 
forward with more of hope and of trust for the future of his 
own beloved land, when he heard such glorious truths so 
warmly proclaimed ; and when he saw such evidences of real 
sympathy for the cause of Hungary. They spoke of the 
Protestant Church. He claimed no merit on account of his 



174 POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS 

belief; but lie, too, Avas a Protestant — not by education 
merely, but from his own studied convictions. He could 
believe nothing merely because he might be commanded to 
do so; but solely as the result of his own convictions. 
Truth is as uncorruptible and imperishable as God himself; 
and He will spread it throughout all the world. But the 
I triumph of truth cannot be achieved by persecution, oppo- 
sition, or political oppression. This glorious principle can 
only be triumphant when the nations of the earth shall 
become free from oppression ; because it is only under the 
protection of free institutions — a free press, free controversy, 
freedom of speech, and free, popular education, — where it is 
your privilege to preach and that of the neighbour to hear, — 
that the political independence of a people can be preserved. 
Oppression is everywhere accompanied by the demoralization 
of the masses, and their adoption of infidelity or fanaticism ; 
while under the teachings of freedom religion becomes a 
j growth of the soul. 

He would urge them to go on and support that cause 
which they believed to be sanctified by truth. It has been 
said that true religion can never cease to be republican. If 
this be true, he would ask w^hat could more promote the 
glorious cause, than the influence of the United States 
exerted among the nations of the world, toward the general 
acknowledgment of that doctrine among nations w^hich is 
laid down for the government of men, — " What ye would 
that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." 
This fundamental truth should be declared a part of the 
international kw of the world ; and the Gospel would then 
become the bulwark of liberty to all mankind. Thus we may 
see that the triumph of genuine liberty can best be secured 
by recognizing religion as the true basis of the law of nations. 
He who shall be instrumental in incorporating this grand 
doctrine among those laws, will be equal, or perhaps su- 
perior to, a Luther, or a Melancthon, a Calvin or a Huss, a 
Cranmer, or any other of the world's greatest reformers. 
The people of this republic have all this within their grasp ; 
and he hoped the Almighty would hasten the day when it 
shall be done. He had often heard that the people of this 



LIBERTY ARE ONE CAUSE. 175 

eountry loved to be called a great people, and he had many 
times heard them called a great people. To he a great 
people, however, the people of this country must really act 
as a great people. He m'ged upon the ministers of the 
Gospel that they should warn their flocks against the horrid 
doctrines of Materialmn. Nothing is more hostile to national 
greatness than when the poor see the rich governed only by 
pecuniary considerations — leaving nothing for the mind and 
the soul, or undervaluing virtue and talents. He thankfully 
acknowledged the deep solemnity of his feelings, when for 
his humble self, such solemn manifestations were observed ; 
and while commending his bleeding country to their love, 
he could only refer them to the Saviour's words as the guide 
for their prayers and their watchfulness. 



XXY.— HUI^aAEIAN LOAN. 

]^3felodeum, Cleveland.^ 

Kossuth having been presented at the Melodeum to the 
Mayor, was publicly addressed by Mr. Starkweather in a 
highly energetic speech, which ended by saluting him as 
" rightful Governor of Hungary." 

Kossuth replied : — 

Sir, if I am not mistaken it is now the 156th time [since 
I entered America], I am sure that it is the 34th time since 
I left Washington on the 12th of January, — that I have had 
the honour to address an American audience in that tongue 
which I learned from Shakspeare, while confined in an Aus- 
trian prison for having dared to claim the right of a free 
press, which now, like the hundred-handed Briareus of old, 
pours my words by thousands of channels into the hearts of 
millions of freemen, who comprize in their national capacity 
a mighty Eepublic, destined to enforce the Law of Nations, 
upon which rests the deliverance of the world from an all- 
overwhelming despotism. 

The press is nobly recompensing me. The ways of Provi- 
dence are wonderful ! 

May the free press never forget its living principle. 



176 OCCUPATIONS OF KOSSUTH. 

'' Justice and Truth." May it always be watchful with its 
thousand eyes, that the secret craft of diplomacy may never 
succeed to degrade one or^an of the American press into an 
unconscious Eussian tool, acted on by blind animosity or by 
exclusive predilections. 

Sir — after having spoken so often, and so much ; and 
the free press having conveyed my principles, my arguments, 
and my prayers, in almost every homestead of this great 
Republic ; I may be well permitted to believe, that the stage of 
speaking is passed, and the stage of practical action has come. 

Almost every packet brings such news of absolutist reaction 
in Europe, and almost every new step of the despotic powers 
is accompanied by such incidents, that it were indeed unpar- 
donable neglect, if, when Providence has placed so much 
influence in my hands by the confidence of nations bestowed 
upon me, I should not use all possible energy to circumvent 
the influence of evil, to combine the eff'orts of the good, to 
check the plots of vile, and the waywardness of erring or 
weak characters — often the unconscious tools of the vile, to 
direct the action of inconsiderate friends, and above all, to 
accomplish those preparations which are indispensable to 
meet the exigencies of the future — in short, to attain that 
crisis, at which I humbly claim protection for principles from 
the people of the United States, in their public capacity, and 
substantial aid from their private generosity. 

You of course are aware that all these things together 
present a vast field, for which every moment of my time 
would scarcely suffice. 

Often am I asked, what are the instrumentalities for this 
my activity ? But this question cannot be answered publicly, 
as I am quite unwilling to let the enemy learn my secrets. 

However, so much I may state, that it is not without a 
definite aim and clear hope that I devote all that yet remains 
in me of energy and strength. If I did not hope, — if under 
certain conditions I had not an assurance of success, — I 
would prefer tranquillity to action, though it w^ere the tran- 
quillity of the grave. 

There are t?€0 modes in which free nations may aid the 
cause of European Independence, — namely, politically and 



HUNGARIAN LOAN. 177 

'privately. As to the first, I avow with intense gratitude that 
the great National Jury, the People, gave and gives inces- 
santly its favourable verdict. Your State Legislature is 
pronouncing its vote, and the cause is moved before the 
High Court of your national Congress. 

In regard to aid by private funds, I rejoice to see local 
associations clustering round the central one of Northern 
Ohio, in Cleveland ; but I desire that such efforts may not be 
delayed until I come in person : for I can possibly come only 
to a few. 

Already in New York I started the idea of a National 
Hungarian Loan, in shares of one, five and ten dollars, with 
the facsimile of my signature, and of larger shares of fifty 
and of a hundred dollars with my autograph. I prepared 
the smaller shares for generous men, who are not rich, yet 
desire to help the great cause of Freedom. It is a noble 
privilege of the richer to do greater good. But remember, 
it is not a gift, it is a loan: for either Freedom has no name on 
earth, or Hungary has a future yet ; and let Hungary be once 
again independent, and she has ample resources to pay 
that small loan, if the people of the United States, remem- 
bering the aid received in their own dark hour, vouchsafe to 
me such a loan. 

Hungary has no public debt, it has fifteen millions of 
population, a territory of more than one hundred thousand 
square English miles, abundant in the greatest variety of 
nature's blessings, if the doom of oppression be taken from 
it. The State of Hungary has public landed property admin- 
istered badly, worth more than a hundred millions of dollars, 
even at the low price, at which it was already an established 
principle of my administration to sell it in smaU shares to 
suit the poorer classes. 

Hungary has rich mines of gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, 
antimony, iron, sulphur, nickelj opal, and other mines. Hun- 
gary has the richest salt mines in the world — where the 
extraction of one hundred weight of the purest stone salt, 
amounts to but little more than one shilling of your money — 
and though that is sold by the government at the price of 
two to three and a half dollars, and thus the consumption is 

8 § 



178 KESOURCES OF HUNGARY. 

of course very restricted, this still yields a net revenue of five 
millions of dollars a year — to the Government — but no 1 
there is not Government, it is usurpation now ! sucking out 
the lifeblood of the people, crushing the spirit of freedom by 
soldiers, hangmen, policemen, and harassing the people in its 
domestic life and the sanctuary of its family with oppression 
worse than a free American can conceive. 

You see by this, gentlemen, that when Hungary is once free 
— and free it will be — she has ample resources to repay your 
generous loan within a year without any taxation of the people 
itself; and pay it well, because every shilling of your generous 
aid will faithfully be employed for its restoration to freedom 
and independence : I may point to my whole life as a guarantee 
to that purpose. I had millions at my disposal, entrusted 
to me by my people's confidence, and here I stand penniless 
and poor, not knowing what my children will eat to-morrow, 
if I die to-day ; and I am proud that I am poor, and 1 pledge 
my honour to you, that every shilling of what your generosity 
gives for Hungary will be employed for Hungary's benefit. 
In fact, as I have provided for the contingency of anything 
befalling me, so also I am ready, if it be your people's will, 
to admit any control, consistent with the necessary conditions 
of success. 

[After this, Kossuth proceeded to speak on the aspect of 
republicanism towards Catholicism and the fortunes of Ireland; 
a subject more fully treated in other speeches.] 



Address to Kossuth from the State Committee of 

Ohio. 

GovER^JOR Kossuth: — As Chairman of the Committee 
appointed for that purpose by a resolution of the General 
Assembly of the State of Ohio, I have the honour to tender 
to you, in the name and in behalf of the State, a cordial wel- 
come to the capital. 

We proffer this greeting as a small tribute of that admira- 
tion which your courage, your integrity, and above all, your 
self-denying devotion to the cause of Hungarian freedom has 
roused in our breasts. 



ADDRESS FROM OHIO LEGISLATURE. 179 

Wonder not, sir, at the enthusiasm which your presence 
excites in a people who cherish, with fond recollection and 
reverence, the smallest relic of that time, when liberty wrestled 
with oppression in America, and who hail the anniversaries 
of her triumphs with such grateful remembrance of those 
brave and patriotic men who wrought out our full measure of 
national happiness. 

In you we behold a living embodiment of those great 
principles which we cherish with such tender affection. 

You are the realization of that virtue, that courage, that 
civil and military genius, which sheds such lustre on our 
early history. 

You call to mind more freshly than poetic or historic page, 
song, or speaking canvass, that glorious record which was 
graven more than two centuries ago by the first exiles from 
European oppression upon the granite rocks of New England, 
— ^^ Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.'' 

Our aflPection is warmed by the lively interest which we 
feel in the spread of this cardinal principle, and the fitness for 
its championship which you have evinced, revealing constantly 
a resemblance to that immortal man, the impress of whose 
greatness you behold on every side. 

When Liberty, scourged from the old, sought out a new 
world wherein to raise her sacred temple, it was to his master 
hand she confided the noble work. 

Had he been less great, that glorious shrine might never 
have been beaconed in the sky, or at least its proportions 
might lUve been uncouth and insecure. 

Now therefore, since liberty has secured the manifold 
blessings that flow from human equality, and proudly flung 
back the taunts of tyrants, it is a joyous reflection to the 
children of this her first home, that she has at length found a 
man in foreign lands fitly gifted to appreciate those blessings, 
industrious to search out and follow the path by which they 
were attained, and virtuous to take no selfish advantage from 
the thanksgiving that her mission will arouse. 

Sir, it is a splendid characteristic of our national govern- 
ment, that Ohioans are as keenly touched by the history of 
your wrongs as the borders of the Atlantic States. 



180 



VAST GROWTH 



Yes, sir, the hearts of two millions of freemen at the centre 
of our country's population leap fast at the shrieks of freedom 
in every clime, believing in no cold, unbrother-like law of dis- 
tance ; and, sir, we yield to no State in the sincerity with 
which the following resolution was adopted : 

Eesolved, — That we declare the Eussian past intervention 
in the affairs of Hungary a violation of the law of nations, 
which, if repeated, would not be regarded indifferently by the 
people of the State of Ohio. 

In conchision, sir, I present to you a copy of the resolu- 
tions of the General Assembly, and again welcome you to the 
valley of the West, trusting that the warmth of your recep- 
tion in Ohio is but an earnest of that glorious sympathy 
which will spring in your path should you go still farther 
westward in your holy mission. 



XXYI.— PANEaYEIC OF OHIO. 

[_Speech at his Reception at Columbus, Feo. 5^7^.] 

Kossuth was conducted by Governor Wood to the place 
fitted up for his reception, and was there addressed by the 
Hon. Samuel Galloway in an ample and glowing speech, 
which opened by assuring him that the enthusiasm which he 
now witnessed was no new creation ; inasmuch as, more than 
two years before, the General Assembly of the State had 
resolved that Congress be requested to interpose for Kossuth's 
deliverance from captivity. 

Kossuth replied : — 

Sir, I thank you for the information of what I owe to 
Ohio. I stood upon the ruins of vanquished greatness in 
Asia, where tidings from young America are so seldom 
heard that indeed I was not acquainted with the fact. Still, 
I loved Ohio before I knew what I had yet to hear. Now 
I will love her with the affection and tenderness of a child, 
knowing what part she took in my restoration to liberty and 
life. 

Sir, permit me to decline those praises which you have 
been pleased to bestow on me personally. I know of no 



OF OHIO STATE. 181 

merit — I know only the word duty, and you are acquainted 
with the beautiful lines of the Irish poet — 

*' Far dearer the grave or the prison, 
lUinned by a patriot's name, 
Than the glories of all who have risen, 
On hberty's ruins, to fame." 

I was glad to hear that you are familiar with the history 
of our struggles, and of our achievements, and of our aims. 
This dispenses me from speaking much, — and that is a great 
benefit to me, because indeed I have spoken very much. 

Sir, entering the young state of Ohio — though my mind 
is constantly filled with homeward thoughts and homeward 
sorrows, still my sorrows relax while I look around me in 
astonishment, and rub my eyes to ascertain that it is not 
the magic of a dream, which makes your bold, mighty, and 
floui'ishing commonwealth rich with all the marks of civiliza- 
tion and of life, here, where almost yesterday was nothing 
but a vast wilderness, silent and dumb like the elements of 
the world on creation's eve. And here I stand in Columbus, 
which, though ten years younger than I am, is still the 
capital of that mighty commonwealth, which — again in its 
turn, — ten years before I was born, nursed but three thousand 
daring men, scattered over the vast wilderness, fighting for 
their lives with scalping Indians; but now numbers two 
millions of happy freemen, who, generous because free, are 
conscious of their power, and weigh mightily in the scale of 
mankind's destiny. 

How wonderful that an exile from a distant European 
nation of Asiatic origin, which, amidst the raging waves of 
centuries that swept away empires, stood for a thousand 
years like a rock, and protected Christendom and civilization 
against barbarism — how wonderful that the exiled governor 
of that nation was destined to come to this land, where a 
mighty nation has grown up, as it were, over night, out of 
the veiy earth, and found this nation protecting the rights 
of humanity, when offended in his person, — found that 
youthful nation ready to stretch its powerful arm across the 
Atlantic to protect all Hungary against oppression, — found 
her pouring the balm of her sympathy into the bleeding 



182 BENEVOLENCE OF OHIO. 

wounds of Hungary, that, regenerated by the faithful spirit 
of America, she may rise once more independent and free, 
a breakwater to the flood of Eussian ambition, which 
oppresses Europe and threatens the world. 

Citizens of Columbus — the namesake of your city, when 
he discovered America, little thought that by his discovery 
he would liberate the Old World. — And those exiles of the 
Old World, who sixty-four years ago, first settled within the 
limits of Ohio, at Marietta, little thought that the first genera- 
tion which would leap into their steps, would make despots 
tremble and oppressed nations rise. And yet, thus it will be. 
The mighty outburst of popular feeling which it is my wonder- 
ful lot to witness, is a revelation of that future too clear not 
to be understood. The Eagle of America flaps its wings ; 
the Stars of America illumine Europe's night ; and the Star- 
spangled banner, taking under its protection the Hungarian 
flag, fluttering loftily and proudly, tells the tyrants of the 
world that the right of freedom must sway, and not the whim 
of despots but the Law of Nations must rule. 

Gentlemen, I may not speak longer. [Cries of go on /] 
Yes, gentlemen, but I am ill, and worn out. Give me your 
lungs, and then I will go on. 

Citizens, your young and thriving city is conspicuous by 
its character of benevolence. There is scarcely a natural 
human afl3dction for which your young city has not an asylum 
of benevolence. To-day you have risen in that benevolence 
from alleviating private affliction to consoling oppressed 
nations. Be blessed for it. I came to the shores of your 
country pleading the restoration of the laws of nations to its 
due sway, and as I went on pleading, I met flowers of sym- 
pathy. Since I am in Ohio I meet fruits ; and as I go on 
thankfully gathering the fruits, new flowers arise, still pro- 
mising more and more beautiful fruits. That is the character 
of Ohio — and you are the capital of Ohio. 

If I am not mistaken, the birth of your city was the year 
of the trial of war, by which your nation proved to the 
world that there is no power on earth that can dare any more 
to touch your lofty building of Independence. The glory of 
your eastern sister States is, to have conquered that inde- 



RECEPTION BY THE LEGISLATURE. 183 

pendence for you. Let it be your glory to have cast your 
mighty weight into the scale, that the law of nations, guarded 
and protected by you, may afford to every oppressed nation 
that " fair play" which America had when it struggled for in- 
dependence. 

Gentlemen, I am tired out. You must generously excuse 
me, when I conclude by humbly recommending my poor 
country's future to your generosity. 

XXVII.— DEMOCRACY THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 

[Reception hy the two Souses of Legislatwre at Ohio,~\ 

Kossuth, attended by the Joint Committee, was then in- 
troduced, and addressed by the President of the Senate, 
Hon. Wm. Medill, as follows : 

Governor Kossuth : On learning that you were about to 
visit the "Western portion of our country, the General Assem- 
bly of this State adopted the following preamble and reso- 
lutions : — 

AYhereas, Louis Kossuth, Governor of Hungary, has en- 
deared himself to the people of Ohio by his great military 
and greater civic services rendered to the cause of Liberty ; 
by the transcendant power and eloquence with which he has 
vindicated the right of every nation to determine for itself 
its own form of government, by the perils he has encountered 
and the suffering he has endured to achieve the freedom of 
his native country : therefore, in the name, and on behalf of 
the people, 

Be it resolved hy the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, 
That the war in which Hungary was lately seemingly over- 
come, was a struggle in behalf of the great principles which* 
underlie the structure of our government, vindicated by the 
bloody battles of eight years, and that we cannot be indifferent 
to their fate, whatever be the arena in which the struggle for 
their vitality goes on. 

Resolved, That an attack in any form upon them is im- 
plicitly an attack upon us, an armed intervention against 
them, is in effect an insult to us ; that any narrowing of the 



184 RESOLUTIONS OF THE LEGISLATURE. 

sway of these principles is a most daiip:erous weakening of 
our own influence and power ; and that all such combina- 
tions of kings against people should be regarded by us now 
as they were in 1776, and so far as circumstances will admit, 
the parallel should and will be so treated. 

Resolved, That we are proud to recognize in Louis Kossuth, 
constitutional Governor of Hungary, the heroic personifica- 
tion of these great principles, and that as such, and in token 
and pledge of our profound sympathy with him, and the 
high cause he so nobly represents, we tender to him, in behalf 
of two millions of freemen, a hearty welcome to the capital 
of the State of Ohio. 

Resolved, That we declare the Eussian past intervention in 
the affairs of Hungary, a violation of the laws of nations, 
which, if repeated, would not be regarded indifferently by the 
people of the State of Ohio. . 

Resolved, That a joint committee of three on the part of 
the Senate, and five on the part of the House of Eepresenta- 
tives, be appointed to tender Governor Kossuth, in the name 
and on behalf of the people of Ohio, a public reception by 
their General Assembly, now in the session of the capital of 
the State. 

This preamble, and tliese resolutions, set forth the views 
and sentiments of the people of Ohio in a far more forcible, 
authoritative, and enduring form, than can possibly be done 
by any declaration or expression of mine. In no part of the 
United States has your course been more warmly approved, 
or your great talents, persevering energy, and devoted pa- 
triotism, more universally admired. This, sir, is sufficiently 
evinced in the cordial and heartfelt welcome that has every- 
where awaited you, since your entrance into the State. 

Free and independent themselves, the people of Ohio 
cannot look with indifference on the great contest in which 
you are engaged. The history of that fearful struggle which 
resulted in the achievement of their own independence is still 
fresh in their recollection. Always on the side of the 
oppressed, no cold or calculating policy can suppress or con- 
trol their sympathies. 

The cause of Hungary, which you so eloquently plead, 



SPIRIT OF THE AGE. 185 

and which it is your high and sacred mission to maintain, is 
the cause of freedom in every quarter of the world. The 
principles involved in that cause, form the basis of our own 
institutions, the source of our present prosperity and great- 
ness, and the foundation of all our hopes and anticipations 
of the future. 

It would be strange, indeed, if a cause so pure and holy, 
or a champion so gifted, should fail to command the highest 
regard and admiration of freemen. 

In the name, then, and on behalf of the General Assembly 
of Ohio, I bid you welcome to our midst. 

I welcome you, sir, to the capital of a great and flourish- 
ing commonwealth — to its halls of legislation, which, in 
your own fatherland, were the scenes of some of your proudest 
triumphs, and to the hearts of a free, generous, and sympa- 
thizing people. 

Kossuth's ueply. 

Mr. President — The General Assembly of Ohio, having 
magnanimously bestowed upon me the high honour of this 
national welcome, it is with profound veneration that I beg 
leave to express my fervent gratitude for it. 

Were even no principles for the future connected with the 
honour which I now enjoy, still the past would be memorable in 
history, and not fail to have a beneficial influence, consciously 
to develop the Spirit of the Age. Almost every century has 
had one predominant idea, which imparted a common direc- 
tion to the activity of nations. This predominant idea is the 
Spirit of the Age, invisible yet omnipresent ; impregnable, 
all-pervading ; scorned, abused, opposed, and yet omnipotent. 

The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people^ 
and all hy the people. Nothing about the people without the / 
people. That is Democracy, and that is the ruling tendency | 
of the spirit of our age. J 

To this spirit is opposed the principle of Despotism, 
claiming sovereignty over mankind, and degrading nations 
from the position of a self-conscious — self-consistent aim, to 
the condition of tools subservient to the authority of ambition. 

One of these principles will and must prevail. So far as 
one civilization prevails, the destiny of mankind is linked 



186 OF oLDj success; 

to a common source of principles, and within the boundaries 
of a common civilization community of destinies exists. 
Hence the warm interest which the condition of distant 
nations awakes now-a-days in a manner not yet recorded in 
history, because humanity never was yet aware of that com- 
mon tie as it now is. With this consciousness thus developed, 
two opposite principles cannot rule within the same boun- 
daries — Democracy and Despotism. 

In the conflict of these two hostile principles, until now 
it was not Eight, not Justice, but only Success which met 
approbation and applause. Unsuccessful patriotism was stig- 
matized with the name of crime. Eevolution not crowned 
by success was styled Anarchy and Revolt, and the vanquished , 
patriot being dragged to the gallows by victorious despotism, 
men did not consider ichy he died on the gallows ; but the 
fact itself, that there he died, imparted a stain to his name. 

And though impartial history, now and then, casts the halo 
of a martyr over an unsuccessful patriot's grave, yet even that 
was not always sure. Tyrants have often perverted history, 
by adulation or by fear. But whatever that late verdict might 
have been ; for him who dared to struggle against despotism, 
at the time when he struggled in vain, there was no honour 
on earth. — Victorious tyranny marked the front of virtue with 
the brand of a criminal. 

Even when an existing *' authority " was mere violence 
worse than that of a pirate, to have opposed it unsuccessfully 
was sufficient to ensure the disapproval of all who held any 
authority. The Peoj)le indeed never failed to console the 
outcast by its sympathy, but Authority felt no such sympathy, 
and rather regarded this very sympathy as a dangerous 
symptom of anarchy. 

When the idea of justice is thus perverted — when virtue is 
thus deprived of its fair renown, and honour is thus attacked 
— when success like that of Louis Napoleon's is gained through 
connivance — all this becomes an immeasurable obstacle 
to the freedom of nations, which never yet was achieved but 
by a stiTiggie, — a struggle, which success raised to the honour 
of a glorious revolution, but failure lowered to the reputation 
of a criminal outbreak. 



NOW RIGHT^ IS CONSIDERED. 187 

Mr. President, I feel proud at the accident, that in my 
person public honours have been restored to that on which 
alone they ought to be bestowed — righteousness and a just 
cause ; whereas, until now, honours were lavished only upon 
success. I consider this as a highly important fact^ which 
cannot fail to encourage the resolution of devoted patriots, 
who, though not afraid of death, may be excused for recoiling 
before humiliation. 

Senators, Eepresentatives of Ohio, I thank you for it in 
the name of all who may yet suffer for having done the^duty 
of a patriot. You may yet see many a man, who, out of your 
approbation, will draw encouragement to noble deeds ; for 
there are many on earth ready to meet misfortune for a noble 
aim, but not so many ready to meet humiliation and indignity. 
Besides, in honouring me, you have approved what my nation 
has done. You have honoured all Hungary by it, and I 
pledge my word to you that we will yet do what you have 
approved. The approbation of our conscience we have — the 
sympathy of your generous people has met us — and it is no 
idle thing, that sympathy of the people of Ohio — it weighs 
as the sovereign will of two millions of free men. You have 
added to it the sanction of your authority. Your people's 
sympathy you have framed into a law, sacred and sure in all 
consequences, on which humanity may rely. 

But, sir, high though be the value of this noble approbation, 
it becomes an invaluable benefit to humanity by those reso- 
lutions by which the General Assembly of Ohio, acknowledg- 
ing the justice of those principles which it is my mission to 
plead in my injured country's name, declares that the mighty 
and flourishing commonwealth of Ohio is resolved to restore 
the eternal laws of nations to their due sway, too long con- 
temned by arbitrary power. 

It was indeed a sorrowful sight to see how nations bled, 
and how freedom withered in the iron grasp of despotisms, 
leagued for universal oppression of humanity. It was a 
sorrowful sight to see that there was no power on earth ready 
to maintain those eternal laws, without which there is no 
security for any nation on earth. It was a sorrowful sight to 
see all nations isolating themselves in defence, while despots 
were leagued in offence. 



\ 



188 JUST SYMPATHY OF REPUBLICS 

The view has changed. A bright lustre is spreading over 
the dark sky of humanity. The glorious galaxy of the United 
States rises upon oppressed nations, and the bloody star of 
despotism fading at your very declaration, will soon vanish 
from the sky like a meteor. 

Legislators of Ohio, it may be flattering to ambitious 
vanity to act the part of an execrated conqueror, but it is a 
glory unparalleled in history to protect rights and freedom 
on earth. The time draws near, when, by virtue of such a 
declatation as yours, shared by your sister States, Europe's 
liberated nations will imite in a mighty choir of hallelujahs, 
thanking God that his paternal cares have raised the United 
States to the glorious position of a first-born son of freedom 
on earth. 

Washington prophesied, that within twenty years the Ee- 
public of the United States would be strong enough to defy 
any power on earth in a just cause. The State of Ohio was 
not yet born when the wisest of men and purest of patriots 
uttered that prophecy ; and God the Almighty has made the 
prophecy true, by annexing, in a prodigiously short period, 
more stars to the proud constellation of your Eepublic, and 
increasing the lustre of every star more powerfully, than 
Washington could have anticipated in the brightest moments 
of his patriotic hopes. 

Eejoice, O my nation, in thy very woes ! Wipe oflP all thy 
tears, and smile amidst thy tortures, like the Dutch hero, De 
Wytt. There is a Providence which rules. Thou wast, O 
my nation, often the martyr, who by thy blood didst redeem 
the Christian nations on earth. Even thy present nameless 
woes are providential. They were necessary, that the star- 
spangled banner of America should rise over a new Sinai — 
the Mountain of Law for all nations. Thy sufferings were 
necessary, that the people of the United States, powerful by 
their freedom and free by the principle of national inde- 
pendence, that common right of all humanity, should stand 
up, a new Moses upon the new Sinai, and shout out with the 
thundering voice of its twenty -five millions — "Hear, ye 
despots of the world, henceforward this shall be law, in the 
name of the Lord your God and our God. 



WITH FOREIGN FREEDOM. 189 

Ye shall not kill nations. 

Ye shall not steal their freedom. 

And ye shall not covet what is your neighbour's." 

Ohio has given its vote by the resolutions I had the honour 
to hear. It is the vote of two millions, and it will have its 
constitutional weight in the councils of Washington City, 
where the delegates of the people's sovereignty find their 
glory in doing the people's will. 

Sir, it will be a day of consolation and joy in Hungary 
when my bleeding nation reads these resolutions, which I will 
send to her. They will flash over the gloomy land ; and my 
nation, unbroken in courage, steady in resolution, and firm in 
confidence, will draw still more courage, more resolution from 
them, because it is well aware that the legislature of Ohio 
would never pledge a word to which the people of Ohio will 
not be true in case of need. 

Sir, I regret that my illness has disabled me to express 
my fervent thanks in a manner more becoming to this 
Assembly's dignity. I beg to be excused for it ; and humbly 
beg you to believe, that my nation for ever, and I for all my 
life, will cherish the memory of this benefit. 

• • • I 3w~l • • ~ 

XXYIII.— THE MISEEIES AND THE STEENGTH OF 
HUNGAEY. 

\_ColMmbus^ Feb, ^th^ to the Association of Friends of Hungai^J] 

On Eeb. 7th was held the first regular meeting of the Ohio 
Association of the Friends of Hungary, in the City Hall of 
Columbus. Governor Wood addressed the Association, as 
its President ; and in the course of his speech, said : — 

This a cause in which the people of the United States feel 
much interest. Much has been said on the doctrine of inter- 
vention and non-intervention. There was a time when, if I 
ventured to speak a word on any question in this State, it was 
received with authority. The opinions I now express have 
been formed with the same deliberation as those I expressed 
with authority in another capacity. There has seemed to be a 
combined effort on the part of despots in Europe to put down 



190 ADDUESS OF GOVERNOR WOOD. 

free institutions. It is the duty of freemen to oppose this 
effort — to resist the principle that every civil community has 
not a right to regulate its own affairs. Whenever one nation 
interferes with the internal concerns of another, it is a direct 
insult to all other nations. 

There is a combined effort in Continental Europe to over- 
throw all free and liberal institutions. This accomplished, 
what next ? — The efforts of tyrants will be directed to our 
institutions. It will be their aim to break us down. Must 
not we prevent this event — peaceably if ive can— forcibly if 
we mmt ? No power will prevail with tyrants and usurpers 
but the power of gunpowder or steel. 

Kossuth in reply, turning to Governor Wood, said : Before 
addressing the assembly, I humbly entreat your excellency to 
permit me to express, out of the very heart of my heart, my 
gratitude and fervent thanks for those lofty, generous prin- 
ciples which you have been pleased now to pronounce. I 
know those principles would have immense value even if they 
were only an individual opinion ; but when they are expressed 
by him who is the elect of the people of Ohio, they doubly, 
manifoldly increase in weight. 

The restoration of Hungary to its national independence is 
my aim, to which T the more cheerfully devote my life, because 
I know that my nation, once master of its own destiny, can 
make no other choice, in the regulation of its institutions and 
of its government, than that of a Republic, founded upon 
democracy and the great principle of municipal self-govern- 
ment, without which, as opposed to centralization, there is no 
practical freedom possible. 

Other nations enjoying a comparatively tolerable condition 
under their existing governments — though aware of their im- 
perfections, may shrink from a revolution of which they cannot 
anticipate the issue, while they know that in every case it is 
attended with great sacrifices and great sufferings for the gene- 
ration which undertakes the hazard of the change. But that 
is not the condition of Hungary. My poor native land is in 
such a condition that all the horrors of a revolution, even 
without the hopes of happiness to be gained by it, are 
preferable to what it lives to endure now. The very life on a 



SUFFERINGS OF HUNGARY. 19] 

bloody battle field, where every whistling musket- ball may 
bring death — affords more security, more ease, and is less 
alarming than that life which the people of Hungary has to 
suffer now. We have seen many a sorrowful day in our past. 
We have been by our geographical position, destined as the 
breakwater against every great misfortune, which in former 
centuries rushed over Europe from the East. It is not only 
the Turks, when they were yet a dangerous, conquering race, 
which my nation had to stay, by wading to the very lips in its 
own heroic blood. No. The still more terrible invasion of 
Batu Khan's (the Mongol) raging millions, poured down over 
Europe from the Steppes of Tartary, — who came not to 
conquer but to destroy, and therefore spared not nature, not 
men, not the child in its mother's womb. It was Hungary 
which had to stay its flood from devouring the rest of Europe. 
Nevertheless all which Hungary has ever suffered is far less 
than it has to suffer now from the tvrant of Austria, himself 
in his turn nothing but the slave of ambitious Eussia. 

Oh ! it is a fair, beautiful land, my beloved country, rich 
in nature's blessings as perhaps no land is rich on earth ! 
When the spring has strewn its blossoms over it, it looks as 
the garden of Eden may have looked, and when the summer 
ripens nature's ocean of crops over its hills and plains, it looks 
like a table dressed for mankind by the Lord himself ; and 
still it was here in Columbus that I read the news that a 
terrible dearth, that famine is spreading over the rich and 
fertile land. How should it not? Where life-draining 
oppression weighs so heavily, that the landowner offers the 
use of all his lands to the Government, merely to get free from 
the taxation — where the vintager cuts down his vineyard — the 
gardener his orchard, and the farmer burns his tobacco seed 
to be rid of the duties, and their vexations — there of course 
must dearth prevail, and famine raise its hideous head. 
Yet the tyrant adds calumny to oppression by attributing the 
dearth to a want of industry, after having created it by 
oppression. There exists no personal security of property. Nor 
is the verdict '' not guilty," when pronounced by an Austrian 
court, sufficient to ensure security against prison, nay, against 
death by the executioner — through a new trial ordered to find 



192 HER PAST VICTORIES. 

a man guilty at any price. Poor Louis Bathyanyi was thus 
treated. Even novr persecution is going on — hundreds are 
arrested secretly and sent to prison and their property con- 
fiscated, though they were already acquitted by the very 
Haynaus. Even to wlmper that a man or woman was arrested 
in the night is considered a crime, and punished by prison, or if 
the whisperer be a young man, by sending him to the army, 
there to taste, when he dares to frown, the corporal's stick. 
No man knoics what is forbidden, what not, because there 
exists no law but the arbitrary will of martial courts — no 
protecting institution — no public life — free speech forbidden — 
the press fettered — complaint a crime — When we consider all 
this, indeed it is not possible not to arrive at the conviction, 
that, come wliat may, a new war of revolution in Hungary is 
not a matter of choice, but a matter of unavoidable necessity, 
because all that may come is not by far so terrible as that 
which is ! 

But I am often asked, — " What hope has Hungary should 
she rise again?'* Pardon me, gentlemen, for saying, that I 
cannot forbear to be surprized as often as I hear this question. 
Why ! The Emperor of Austria, fresh with his bloody vic- 
tories over Italy, Vienna, Lemberg, Prague, attacked us in 
the fullness of his power, when we had no expectation, and 
were least in the world prepared to meet it. We were 
assaulted on several sides ; our fortresses were in the hands 
of traitors, we had as yet no army at all. We were secluded 
from all the world — forsaken by all the world — without 
money — without arms — without ammunition — without friends 
— having nothing for us but the justice of our cause, and the 
people burning with patriotism — men who went to the battle- 
field almost without knowing how to cock their guns ; but 
still, within less than six months, we beat all the force of 
Austria, — we crushed it to the dust, and, in despair, the 
proud tyrant fled to the feet of the Czar, begging his assist- 
ance for his sacrilegious purpose, and paying him by the 
sacrifice of honour, independence, and all his future ! 

In contemplating these facts, who can doubt that we are 
now a match for Austria. Then we had no army — now we 
have 120,000 brave Magyars, who fought for freedom and 



GUARANTEE HER FUTURE. 193 

Fatherland, enlisted in the ranks of Austria, forming their 
weakness and our strength. Then hostile nations were 
opposed to us, now they are friendly, and are with us. Then 
no combination existed between the oppressed nations — now 
the combination exists. Then our oppressor took his own 
time to strike — when he was best and we were worst pre- 
pared :— now we will take our time and strike the blow, 
when it is best for us and worst for him. In a word, then 
every chance was against us, and we almost in a condition 
that the stoutest hearts faltered ; and we only took up the 
gauntlet because our very soul revolted against the boundless 
treachery ; — now every chance is for us, and it is the nation 
which throws the gauntlet into the tyrant's face. Our very 
misfortune ensures our success — because then we had still 
something to lose, now we have nothing. We can only gain ; 
for I defy the sophistry of despotism to invent anything 
of public or private oppression which is not abeady inflicted 
upon us. 

But I was upon the question of success. — When I meet 
that question — upon what reposes the success of Hungary, 
it always occurs to my mind that the last x\dministration of 
the United States sent a gentleman over to Europe during 
the Hungarian struggle, not with orders to recognize the 
independence of Hungary, but just to look to what chances 
of success we had. Now, suppose that the United States, 
taking into consideration the right of every nation to dispose 
of itself, and true to that policy which it has always followed, 
to take established facts as they are, and not to investigate 
what chances there might or might not be for the future, 
but always recognize every new Government everywhere — 
suppose that it had sent that gentleman with such an in- 
struction to Hungary : what would have been the con- 
sequence ? If the government of Hungary which existed — 
and indeed existed very actively, for it had created armies, 
had beaten Austria, and driven her last soldier from Hun- 
garian territory, — If that government had been recognized 
by the United States, of course commercial intercourse with 
the United States, in every respect, would have been 
lawful, according to your existing international laws. The 

9 



194 FULL SCOPE OF SUCCESS 

Emperor of Austria, the Czar of Eussia, because they are 
recognized powers, have full liberty to buy your cannons, 
gunpowder, muskets — everything. That would have been 
the case with Hungary. That legitimate commerce with 
the people of the United States with Hungary, of course 
would have been protected by the navy of the United States 
in the Mediterranean. Now, men we had enough — but 
arms we had none. That would have given us arms, and 
having beaten Austria already, we would have beaten Eussia, 
and I, instead of having now the honour of addressing you 
here, would perhaps have dictated a peace in Moscow. But 
the gentleman was sent to investigate the chances of success. 
Upon this investigation Hungary perished. 

Let me entreat you, friends of Hungary, do not much 
hesitate about success. While Eome deliberated, Saguntum 
fell. I fear that by too long investigating what chances we 
have, the chances of success will be compromised, which by 
speedy help could have been ensured. 

Well, I am answered — "there is no doubt about it. — 
Hungary is a match for Austria. You have beaten Austria, 
it is true; but Eussia — there is the rub." Precisely, be- 
cause there is the rub, I come to the United States, relying 
upon the fundamental principles of your great Eepublic, to 
claim the protection and maintenance of the law of nations 
against the armed interference of Eussia. 

That is precisely what I claim. That accorded, no inter- 
vention of Eussia can take place ; the word of America will 
be respected, not out of consideration for your dignity, 
but because the Czar and the cabinet of Eussia, atrocious 
and unprincipled as they are, are no fools, and will not risk 
their existence. Therefore your word will be respected. 

lou have an act of Congress, passed in 1818, by which 
the people of the United States are forbidden by law to take 
any hostile steps against a power with which the United 
States are at amity. Well, suppose Congress pronounces 
such a resolution — that in respect to any power which vio- 
lates the laws of nations we recall this neutrality law and 
give full liberty to follow its own will. (Applause.) Now, by 
declaring this, Congress has prevented a war, because it has 



THROUGH AMERICAN RECOGNITION. 195 

been pointed out to the people in what way that pronunciation 
of the law of nations is to be supported, and the enterprizing 
spirit of the people of the United States is too well known — 
its sympathy for the cause of Hungary is too decidedly 
expressed, not to impart a conviction to the Czar of Eussia, 
that though the United States do not wish to go to war, still 
the law of nations will be enforced, peaceably if possible, 
(turning to Governor Wood) forcibly if necessary. 

But as I again and again meet the doubt whether your 
protest even with such a sanction will be respected. I farther 
answer — let me entreat you to try. It costs nothing. You 
are not bound to go further than you will ; — try. Perhaps 
it will be respected, and if it be, humanity is rescued, and 
freedom on earth reigns where despotism now rules. It is 
worth a trial. 

Besides, I beg to remind you of my second and third 
requests, either of which might bring a practical solution of 
this doubt. At present, whoever will may sell arms to 
Austria, but you forbid your own citizens to sell arms to 
Hungary ; and this, though the rule of Austria has no 
legitimate basis, but rests on unjust force -, while you have 
avowed th^ cause of Hungary to be just. Such a state of 
your law is not neutrality, and is not righteous towards us ; 
nor is it fair towards your own people. If Yenice were to- 
day to shake off the yoke of Austria, Austria will forthwith 
forbid all of you to buy and sell with Yenice. Well : I say 
that is not fair towards your own citizens, any more than to 
the Yenetians. True ; you have not the right to open a 
market by force, towards a nation which is unwilling to deal 
with you, but you have a clear right to deal with one which 
desires it, in spite of any belligerent who chooses to forbid 
you. How could the fact of Hungary oi* Yenice rising up 
against their oppressor justify Austria in damaging the lawful 
commerce of America with those nations ? On this turns 
my second principle, which I consider of high importance for 
the coming struggle ; that the United States would declare 
their resolve to uphold their commercial intercourse with 
every nation which is ready to accept it. 

Thirdly, I claimed that you would recognize the Hungarian 



196 HE RESPECTS LOCAL LAWS. 

Declaration of Independence as having been legitimate. My 
enemies have misrepresented this, as if I desired to be 
recognized as de facto the Governor of Hungary. This is 
mere absurdity. That is not the question — am I governor 
or not governor? The question is — was the Declaration 
of Independence of Hungary, in the judgment of the people 
of the United States, a legitimate one, to which my nation 
had a right — or was it not? I believe America cannot 
answer no, because your very existence rests on a similar 
fact. And if that declaration is made, what will be the 
consequence of it ? What will be the practical result ? 
Why, that the very moment when I or whoever else, upon 
the basis of this declaration, recognized to be legitimate by 
your republic, shall take a stake upon Hungarian indepen- 
dence, and issue a proclamation declaring that a national 
government exists, that very moment the existence of the 
government will be recognized, and the gentleman who will 
be sent to Europe will not be sent to investigate what 
chances we have of success, but into what diplomatic rela- 
tion we shall come. And what will be the consequence? 
A legitimate commercial intercourse of America. Then I 
can fit out men of war — steamers and everything-w-and your 
laws will not prevent me. The government of Hungary will 
then be a friendly power, and therefore according to your 
laws everything might be done for the benefit of my country 
— and who knows what a benefit it might secure to your- 
selves ? 

As regards my use of any pecuniary aids, I declare that 
I will respect the laws of every nation where I have the 
honour even temporarily to be. I wiU employ that aid, 
w^hich the friends of Hungary may place at my disposal, 
for the benefit of my country, to be sure, but only in such 
a way as is not forbidden by, or contrary to, your laws. 
Now, to make an armed expedition against a friendly power 
— that is forbidden. But if Hungary rises upon the basis 
of a recognized, legitimate independence, then what is 
necessary for it to prepare for coming into that position is 
lawful. I have taken the advice of the highest authorities 
in that respect. I was not so bold as to become the inter- 



DESOLATION OF HUNGARY. 197 

preter of your laws, but I have asked, Is that lawful, or is it 
not? from the highest authorities in law matters of the 
United States. 

Now to return to Hungary. In what condition is it ! In 
the beginning of my talking I mentioned the invasion of 
Tartarian hordes. Then the wild beasts spread over the 
land, and caused the few remnants of the people to take 
refuge in some castles, and fortresses, and fortified places, 
and in the most remote and sterile ground. The wild beasts 
fed on human blood. Now again the wild beasts are spread- 
ing terribly ; and why ? Because, to have a single pistol, to 
have a sword, or a musket, is a crime which is punished by 
several years' imprisonment. Such is now the condition of 
Hungary ! Therefore, you may now see that the country 
is disarmed, and of what importance is it for that success, 
about which I hear now and then doubts, to have arms pre- 
pared in a convenient lawful manner. 

[After this, Kossuth spoke in some detail concerning the 
pecuniary contributions ; and closed with complaints of his 
painfully over-worked chest, which had much impeded his 
speech.] 



XXIX.— OHIO AND FEANCE, CONTEASTED AS 
EEPUBLICS. 

\_Rece'pUon at Cincinnati.'] 

Kossuth having been received by a vast assemblage of the 
people of Cincinnati was addressed in their name by the 
honourable Caleb Smith, from whose speech the following are 
extracts : — 

Your progress through a portion of the whole States which 
originally constituted the American confederacy, has called 
forth such manifestations of public feelings as leave no doubt 
that the liberty enjoyed by the people of those States, has 
created in their hearts a generous sympathy for the advocates 
of civil liberty who have endeavoured to establish free insti- 
tutions in Europe. 



198 SPEECH OF HON. CALEB SMITH. 

The brilliant success which attended the first efforts of the 
Hungarian Patriots, excited the hope that the tricoloured 
flag unfurled on the shores of the Danube, would, like the 
stars and stripes of our own Republic, become the emblem 
and the hope of freedom. 

The intervention of Eussia, in violation of the law of 
nations, in defiance of justice and right, and in disregard of 
the public sentiment of the civilized world, for a time, at 
least, disappointed this hope ; and the exultation it excited 
was followed by a mournful sadness, when Russian arms and 
domestic treason combined, caused the Hungarian flag to 
trail in the dust. 

Hungary failed to establish her independence, but failed 
only, when success was impossible. The eiforts she has 
made have not been wholly lost. The seed which she has 
sown in agony and blood, will yet sprout and bring forth 
fruit. The memory of her devoted sons who have fallen in 
the cause of liberty, will be perpetuated upon the living 
tablets of the hearts of freedom's votaries throughout the 
world. The spirits of the martyrs shall whisper hope and 
consolation to the hearts of her surviving children ; and from 
out the dungeons of her captive patriots shall go forth the 
spirit of liberty to cheer and animate their countrymen. 

You are engaged in a high and holy mission. The redemp- 
tion of your fatherland from oppression is worthy of your 
efforts, and may God prosper them ; and may you find in 
this free land such sympathy and aid as will strengthen 
your heart for the stern trials which await you in your own 
country. 

Kossuth replied : 

Sir, — Before I answer you, let me look over this animated 
ocean, that I may impress upon my memory the look of 
those who have transformed the wilderness of a primitive 
forest into an immense city, of which there exists a prediction 
that, by the year of our Lord 2000, it will be the greatest 
city in the world. 

" The West ! the West ! the region of the Pather of Rivers ! 
there thou canst see the cradle of a new-born humanity." 
So I was told by the learned expounders of descriptive 



IS THE WEST A CRADLE? 199 

geography, who believe that they know the world, because 
they have seen it on maps. 

The West a cradle ! Why ? A cradle is the sleeping 
place of a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying for 
the mother's milk. 

People of Cincinnati, are you that child which, awakening 
in an unwatched moment, liberated his tender hands from the 
swaddling band, swept away by his left arm the primitive 
forest planted by the Lord at creation's dawn, and raised by 
his right hand this mighty metropolis. Why, if that be your 
childhood's pastime, I am awed by the presentiment of your 
manhood's task ; for it is written, that it is forbidden to men 
to approach too near to omnipotence. And that people here 
which created this rich city, and changed the native woods of 
the red man into a flourishing seat of Christian civilization 
and civilized Christianity — into a living workshop of science 
and art, of industry and widely-spread commerce ; and per- 
formed this change, not like the drop, which by falling 
incessantly through centuries digs a gulf where a mountain 
stood, but performed it suddenly within the turn of the 
hand, like a magician ; that people achieved a prouder work 
than the giants of old, who dared to pile Ossa upon Pelion ; 
but excuse me, the comparison is bad. 

Those giants of old heaped mountain upon mountain, with 
the impious design to storm the heavens. You have trans- 
formed the wilderness of the west into the dwelling-place of 
an enlightened, industrious, intelligent Christian community, 
that it may flourish a living monument of the wonderful 
bounty of Divine Providence — a temple of freedom, which 
glorifies God, and bids oppressed humanity to hope. 

And yet when I look at you, citizens of Cincinnati, I see 
no race of giants, astonishing by uncommon frame : I see 
men as I am wont to see all my life, and I have lived almost 
long enough to have seen Cincinnati a small hamlet, com- 
posed of some modest log-houses, separated by dense woods, 
where savage beast and savage Indian lurked about the lonely 
settlers, who, as the legend of Jacob Wetzel and his faithful 
dog tells, had to wrestle for life when they left their poor 
abode. 



200 MANKIND THE TRUE HERO. 

What is the key of this rapid, wonderful change ? The 
glorious cities of old were founded by heroes whom posterity 
called demi-gods, and whose name survived their work by 
thousands of years. Who is your hero ? Who stood god- 
father at the birth of the Queen of the West ? 

I looked to history and found not his name. But instead 
of one mortal man's renowned name, I find in the records of 
your city's history an immortal being's name, and that is, tlie 
people. The word sparkles with the lustre of a life-invigo- 
rating flame, and that flame is Liberty. Freedom, regu- 
lated by wise institutions, based upon the great principle of 
national independence and self-government; this is the 
magical rod by which the great enchanter, " the people^^ has 
achieved this wonderful work. 

Sir, there is a mighty change going on in human develop- 
ment. Formerly great things were done by great men, whose 
names stand in history like milestones, marking the march of 
mankind on the highway of progress. It was mankind which 
marched, and still it passed unnoticed and unknown. Of 
him history has made no record, but of the milestones only, 
and has called them great men. The lofty frame of individual 
greatness overshadowed the people, who were ready to follow, 
but not prepared to go without being led. Humanity and 
its progress was absorbed by individualities ; because the 
people which stood low in the valley got giddy by looking up 
to the mountain's top, where its leaders stood. It was the 
age of childhood for nations. Children cling to the leading 
strings as to a necessity, and feel it a benefit to be led. 

But the leaders of nations changed soon into kings. Am- 
bition claimed as a right what merit had gained as a free 
ofi'ering. Arrogance succeeded to greatness ; and out of the 
child-like attachment for benefits received, the duty of blind 
obedience was framed by the iron hand of violence, and by 
the craft of impious hypocrisy, degrading everything held for 
holy by men — religion itself — into a tool of oppression on 
earth. It was the era of uncontroverted despotism, which, 
with sacrilegious arrogance, claimed the title of divine rank ; 
and mankind advanced slowly in progress, because it was not 



MERE CHANGE OF MASTERS. 201 

conscious of its own aim. Oppression was taken for a 
gloomy fatality. 

The scene has changed. Nations have become conscious 
of their rights and destiny, and will tolerate no masters, nor 
will suffer oppression any longer. The spirit of freedom 
moves through the air ; and remember, that you are morally 
somewhat responsible for it, inasmuch as it is your glorious 
struggle for independence which was the first upheaving of 
mankind's heart roused to self-conscious life. Even by that 
first effort she gloriously achieved the national independence 
of America. Though gifted with all the blessings of nature's 
virginal vitality, you would never have succeeded to achieve 
this wonderful growth which we see, if you had employed 
your conquered national independence merely to take a new 
master for the old one. 

And mark well, gentlemen ! a nation may have a master 
even if it has no king — a nation may be called a republic, 
and yet be not free — TTherever centralization exists, there 
the nation has either sold or lent, either alienated or delegated 
its sovereignty ; and wherever this is done, the nation has a 
master — and he who has a master is of course not his own 
master. Power may be centralized in many — the centraliza- 
tion by and by will be concentrated in few, as in ancient 
Venice, or in one, as in France at the time of the " Uncle,'" 
some forty years ago, and again in France, now that the 
" Nephew " has his bloody reign for a day. 

Yes, gentlemen, if that generation of devoted patriots 
who achieved the Independence of the United States, had 
merely changed the old master for a new one with the name 
of an Emperor or a King, or of an omnipotent President, your 
country were now just something like Brazil or Mexico, or 
the Eepublics of South America, all of them independent, as 
you know, and all except Brazil even Eepublics, and all rich 
with nature's blessings, and offering a new home to those 
who fly from the oppression of the Old World — and yet all 
of them old before they were young, and decrepit before they 
were strong. Had the founders of your country's Indepen- 
dence followed this direction which led the rest of America 
astray, Cincinnati would be a hamlet yet as it was in Jacob 



202 FRANCE CENTRALIZED : 

Wetzel's time ; and Ohio, instead of being a first-rate star 
in the constellation of your Eepnblic, would be an appendage 
of neighbouring Eastern States — a not yet explored desert, 
marked in the map of America only by lines of northern 
latitude and western longitude. 

The people, a real sovereign ; your institutions securing 
real freedom, because founded on the principles of self-govern- 
ment ; union to secure national independence and the position 
of a power on earth ; and all together, having no master but 
God ; omnipotence not vested in any man, in any assembly, — 
and an open field to every honest exertion — because civil, 
political, and religious liberty is the common benefit to all, 
not limited but by itself (that is, by the unseen, but not unfelt, 
influence of self-given law) ; that is the key of the living 
wonder which spreads before my eyes. 

Let me recall to your memory a curious fact. It is just a 
hundred years ago, that the first trading house upon the 
Great Miami was built by daring English adventurers, at a 
place later known as Laramie's Store, then the territory of 
the Twigtwee Lidians. The trade house was destroyed by 
Frenchmen, who possessed then a whole world on the conti- 
nent of America. Well, twenty-four years later, France 
aided your America in its struggle for independence ; and oh ! 
feel not ofi'ended in your proud power of to-day, when I say 
that independence would not then have been achieved without 
the aid of France. 

Since that time, France has been twice a Eepublic, and 
changed its constitutions thirteen times ; and, though thirty- 
six millions strong, it has lost every foot of land on the conti- 
nent of America, and at home it lies prostrated beneath the 
feet of the most inglorious usurper that ever dared to raise 
ambition's bloody seat upon the ruins of liberty. And your 
Eepublic ? It has grown a giant of power. And Ohio ? 
out of the ruins of a trading-house into a mighty common- 
wealth of two millions of free and happy men, who shout out 
with a voice like the thunderstorm, to the despots of the 
Old World, '^ ye shall stop in your ambitious way before the 
power of freedom, ready to protect the common la^vs of all 
humanity." 



AMERICA SELF-GOVERNED. 203 

What a glorious triumph of your institutions over the 
principles of centralized government ! 

Oh 1 may all the generations yet unborn, and all the mil- 
lions who will yet gather in this New World of the West, 
which soon will preponderate in the scale of the Union, 
where all the west weighed nothing fifty years ago — may 
they all ever and ever remember the high instruction which 
the Almighty has revealed in this parallel of different results. 

Sir, you say that Ohio can show no battle field connected 
with recollections of your own glorious revolution. Let me 
answer, that the whole West is a monument, and Cincinnati 
the fair cornice of it. If your eastern sister States have 
instructed the world how nations become independent and 
free, the West shows to the world what a nation once indepen- 
dent and really free can become. 

AUow me to declare, that by standing before the world as 
such an instnictive example, you exercise the most effective 
revolutionary propaganda : for if the mis-result of French 
revolutions discourage the nations from shaking off the 
oppressors' yoke, your victory, — and still more, your unparal- 
leled prosperity, — has encouraged oppressed nations to dare 
what you dared. 

Egotists and hypocrites may say that you are not respon- 
sible for it : you have bid nobody to follow you ; — and it may 
be true that you are not responsible before a tribunal. Still, 
you are sufficiently free not to feel offended by a true word ; 
therefore I say you are responsible before your own conscience^ 
for, your example having started a new doctrine, the teacher 
of a new doctrine is morally bound not to forsake his doctrine 
when assailed in the person of his disciples. 



XXX.-- WAR A PROVIDENTIAL NECESSITY AGAINST 
OPPRESSION. 

\_Tothe Clergy of Cincinnati.~\ 

The clergy of Cincinnati addressed Kossuth by the mouth 
of the Rev. Mr. Eisher. Among other topics, this gentleman 
said : — 

We wish to you first, and through you, to the world, to 



204 CLERGYMEN OF HUNGARY. 

express our respect for those heroic clergymen who dared to 
offer public prayers to iUmighty God for the success of your 
arms. We have not forgotten the manner in which Austria 
attempted to dragoon their tongues into silence, and their 
souls into abject submission. Nor can we believe that a 
country with such pastors — that a country whose religious 
interests are confided to men ready to pray against the Despot, 
will be suffered by our heavenly Father to remain trodden 
down, and to have her name blotted out of the history of 
nations. If in the great battle of freedom, the heart of the 
minister of religion at the Altar, beats in sympathy with the 
heart of the minister at the Council Board, and the soldier 
in the battle-field, there is then a union of the moral, intel- 
lectual, and physical forces of a nation, which we have been 
taught to believe would generally and ultimately be victorious. 
We frankly confess to you that our hope that Hungary is 
not to share the fate of unhappy Poland, is grounded first on 
the large element of a Protestant ministry she embraces, and 
secondly on the advance which the nations are making in a 
true understanding of the principles of republican freedom. 
We believe the cause of Hungary to be just. Against the 
usurpations of Kings and perjured Princes — against the 
interference of foreign powers to assist in treading on the 
sparks of liberty anywhere on the earth, and especially in 
such a land as yours, we claim the privilege at the fit time of 
entering our protest and expressing toward such acts our 
deepest abhorrence. And while we desire most earnestly the 
advent of universal peace, and rejoice that the power of moral 
principles is increasing in the world, and anticipate the day 
when the nations shall learn war no more, yet we are fully 
convinced, both from the Holy Scriptures and the history of 
the past, that under the overruling providence of God wars 
occasioned by the oppression, the ambition, and the cove- 
tousness of men, are often the means of breaking up the. 
stagnant waters of superstition and irreligion, and securing 
to the truth a position from which it may most successfully 
send abroad its light, and mould the heart of a nation to 
religion and peace. Despotism is in our view a perpetual war 
of a few uj^on the many ; and we must unlearn some of the 



PROTESTANTISM OF HUNGARY. 205 

earliest lessons that our mothers taught us and our fathers 
illustrated in their lives, before we can cease to sympathize 
with the assertors of their rights against the force or the 
fraud of their fellow-men. And since the sad issue of revo- 
lution after revolution in infidel Trance, there are not a few of 
us, who have indulged the hope (especially since your visit 
to our shores), that in central Europe, in your native land, 
among an undebauched and a Bible -reading people, a govern- 
ment might arise that would accord freedom of conscience to 
all, and shine as a light of virtuous republicanism upon the 
darkness around. 

In meeting you thus we design no mere display, no inef- 
fective parade of words. We wish to give whatever weight 
of influence we may hear in this community, to the cause of 
freedom in your native land, to assist in securing to you and 
your nation, such aid as a nation situated as we are can 
wisely give, so as best to subserve the interests of liberty and 
humanity in all the world. We regard the moral influence 
of this country as of the first importance ; and the peaceful 
working of republican institutions as a daily protest against 
despotism. And for ourselves we pledge to you and your 
country, that we will, in public and private, bear your cause 
upon our hearts, and invoke in your behalf, the intervention 
of an arm that no earthly power can resist. 

Kossuth replied at length. The following is an extract 
from his speech : — 

You have been pleased to refer to war as, under certain 
circumstances, an instrumentality of Divine Providence — 
and indeed so it is. Great things depend upon the exact 
definition of a word. There is, I suppose, nobody on earth 
who takes war for a moral or happy condition. Every man 
must wish peace ; but peace must not be confounded with 
oppression. It is our duty, I believe, to follow the historical 
advice of the Scriptures, which very often have pointed out 
war as an instrumentality against oppression and injustice. 

You have very truly said that despotism is a continued war 
of the few against the many, of ambition against mankind. 
Now if that be true — (and true it is — for war is nothing else 



206 PEACE DOES NOT EXIST. 

than an appeal to force) — then how can any persons claim of 
oppressed nations not to resort to war ? Who makes war ? 
those who defend themselves ? or those who attack others ? 
Now if it be true that despotism is a continued attack upon 
mankind, then war comes from that quarter, and I have no 
where in the world heard that an unjust attack should not 
be opposed by a just defence. It is absurd to entreat na- 
tions not to disturb a peace which does not exist. What 
would have become of Christianity in Europe (and in further 
consequence, also in America), if in those times, when Mo- 
hammedanism was yet a conquering power, Hungary out of 
love of peace had not opposed Mohammedanism in defence 
of Christianity ? What would have become of Protestantism 
when assailed by Charles Y, by Philip II, and others ? Did 
Luther or others forbid the use of arms against arms, to 
protect for men the right of private judgment in matters of 
salvation. I have seen war. I know what an immense 
machine it is. What an immense misfortune and with what 
sufferings it is connected. Believe me, there is no nation 
which loves war, but many that fear war less than they hate 
oppression, which prevents both their happiness on earth 
and the development of private judgment for salvation in 
eternity. 

You have been pleased to assure me that you take the 
cause of Hungary for a just cause. I most respectfully thank 
you for it. I consider your judgment of immense value in 
that respect. Why ? Because you are too deeply penetrated 
by the sacred mission to which you have devoted your lives, 
ever to approve anything which you would not consider con- 
sistent and in harmony with your position as ministers of the 
gospel ; and therefore when you give me the verdict of justice 
for the cause of Hungary, I take your approbation as a sanc- 
tion from the principles of the Christian religion. 

Let me therefore entreat you, gentlemen, to bestow your 
action, your prayers, and that which in the gospel is connected 
with prayers — watchfulness, upon my country's cause. It is 
not without design that I mention this word watchfulness ; 
for it would be not appropriate for me to speak any word 
which might excite mere passion. I rely upon principles in 



MORAL INFLUENCE REQUIRES FREEDOM. 207 

their plainness, and make no appeal to blind excitement ; 
but I venture to throw out the hint, that in certain quarters 
even the word religion is employed as a tool against that cause 
which you pronounce to be just ; and therefore I may b€ 
permitted to claim from ministers of Christ — from Protestant 
clergymen — from American Protestant clergymen, that they 
will not only pray for that cause, but also be watchful against 
that abuse of religion for the oppression of a just cause. 

You have farther stated that as American clergymen, you 
entertain the conviction that a free Gospel can only be per« 
manently enjoyed under a free civil government. Now what 
is free Gospel? The trumpet of the Gospel is of course 
sounded from the moral influence of the truths, which are 
deposited by Divine Providence in the holy Scriptures. No 
influence can be more powerful than that of the truth which 
God himself has revealed, and nevertheless you say, that for 
permanent enjoyment of this moral influence, the field of 
free civil government is necessary. So it is. Now, let me 
make the application of these very truths in respect to the 
moral institutions of your country. I entirely trust that all 
other institutions which we know now will by and bye disappear 
before the moral influence of your institutions, as is proved 
by the wonderful development of this country — but under 
one condition, that the nations be restored to national inde- 
pendence : since, so long as absolutist power rules the world, 
there is no place, no field for the moral influence of your 
institutions. Precisely as the moral influence of the Gospel 
cannot spread without a free civil government, so the in- 
fluence of your institutions can spread only upon the basis of 
national independence, as a common benefit to every nation. 

You will, I hope, generously excuse me for having answered 
your generous sentiments in such a plain manner. My in- 
disposition has given me no time to prepare for the honour of 
meeting you in such a way as I would have wished. You have 
given joy, consolation, and hope to my heart, and encourage- 
ment to go on in that way which you honour with your 
welcome and your sympathy; and I shall thank this your 
generosity in the most effective manner, by following your 
advice and by further using those exertions which have met 
your approbation. 



208 



XXXI.— ON WASHINaXON'S POLICY. 

[^Speech on the Anniversary of Washington's Birthday, Cincinnati.'] 

A SPLENDID entertainment was prepared, to which six 
hundred persons sat down. After the toasts many energetic 
speeches were made. Mr. Corry said : — 

The time is come for our miglity Eepublic to stand by its 
friends and brave its enemies. There is a confederation of 
tyrants now marching across the cinders of Europe. Are 
we to take no heed of their aggressions at our doors ? It is 
for us to aid the people of the old world against their tyrants, 
as we were aided to get rid of ours. Ohio will not fail in her 
duty. 

The president of the evening, Mr. James J. Foran, 
observed : — 

In 1849 we held in this city the first meeting, I believe, 
in the United States on this subject, and expressed our 
indignation at the unwarrantable interference of Eussia. We 
declared it to be our duty, as a free and powerful govern- 
ment, to notify to Eussia, that her interference in the affairs 
of Hungary must cease, or the United States would cast 
their strength on the side of justice and right against 
tyranny and oppression .... In the great struggle which 
is approaching between liberty and absolutism we shall be 
compelled to act a part. It will not do to rely altogether 
on either a just cause or the interposition of Providence. It 
is well to have both of these ; but to add to them our own 
exertions, is indispensable to human success. 

Here, " in the wilderness," in the bosom of the Great West, 
in the city of one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, 
whence emanated the first public move in America for his 
personal cause, and also his liberation from captivity, do we 
welcome Louis Kossuth, the champion of self-government in 
Europe. 

Kossuth in response said : — 

Mr. President : I consider it a particular favour of Provi- 
dence that I am permitted to partake, on the present solemn 
occasion, in paying the tribute of honour and gratitude to the 
memory of your immortal Washington. 



MONUMENT OF WASHINGTON. 209 

An architect having raised a proud and noble building to 
the service of the Almighty, his admirers desired to erect a 
monument to his memory. How was it done ? His name 
was inscribed upon the wall, with these additional words : 
" You seek his monument — look around.'' 

Let him who looks for a monument of Washington, look 
around the United States. The whole country is a monument 
to him. Your freedom, your independence, your national 
power, your prosperity, and your prodigious growth, is a 
monument to Washington. 

There is no room left for panegyric, none especially to a 
stranger whom you had full reason to charge with arrogance, 
were he able to believe that his feeble voice could claim to 
be noticed in the mighty harmony of a nation's praise. Let 
me therefore, instead of such an arrogant attempt, pray that 
that God, to whose providential intentions Washington was a 
glorious instrument, may impart to the people of the United 
States the same wisdom for the conservation of the present 
prosperity of the land and for its future security which he gave 
to Washington for the foundation of it. 

Allow me, sir, to add, Washington's wisdom consisted in 
doing all which, according to the circumstances of his time and 
the condition of his country, was necessary to his country's 
freedom, independence, welfare, glory, and future security. 
I pray to God that the people of this Eepublic, and all 
those whom the people's confidence has entrusted with the 
honourable charge of directing the helm of the common- 
wealth, may be endowed with the same wisdom of doing all 
which present circumstances and the jpresent condition of your 
country point out to be not only consistent with but neces- 
sary to your country's present glory, present prosperity, and 
future security. 

Surely, that is the fittest tribute to the memory of Wash- 
ington, that is the most faithful adherence to the doctrine 
which he bequeathed to you, by far a better tribute, and by 
far a more faithful adherence, than to do, literally, the same 
that he did, amid circumstances quite different from those you 
are now surrounded with, and in a condition entirely different 
from that in which you and the world are now. 



210 AUTHORITY OF WASHINGTON. 

The principles of Washington are for ever true, and should 
for ever be the guiding star to the United States. But to 
imitate literally the accidental policy of Wasliihgton, would 
be to violate his principles. If the spirit of Washington 
could raise its voice now, in this distinguished circle of 
American patriots, it would loudly and emphatically protest 
against such a course, and would denounce it as not only 
injurious to his memory, but also as dangerous to the future 
of this Eepublic, which he founded with such eminent wisdom 
and glorious success. 

I have seen, sir, the people of the United States advised 
to regard the writings of Washington as the Mahommedan 
regards the Koran, considering everything which is not to be 
found in the Koran as useless to heed. Now this parallel 
I, indeed, take for a very curious compliment to the memory 
of TFasMngton — a compliment at which his immortal spirit 
must feel offended, I am sure. 

Why ? to what purpose is the immortal light of Heaven 
beaming in man's mind, if it be wise not to make any use of 
it ? To what purpose all that assiduous care about public in- 
struction, and about the propagation of knowledge and 
intelligence, if the writings of Washington are the Koran of 
America ; forbidding the right of private judgment, which 
the great majority of your nation claim as a natural right, 
even in respect to the Holy Bible, that book of Divine origin ? 
Look to the east where the Koran rules, obstructing with its 
absolutism the development of human intellect : what do you 
behold there ? You behold mighty nations, a noble race of men, 
interesting in many respects, teeming with germs of vitality, 
and still falling fast into decay, because doomed to stagnation 
of their intelligence by that blind faith in their Koran's 
absolute perfection, which we see recommended as a model 
to the people of this Eepublic, whose very existence rests on 
progress. 

Indeed, gentlemen, I dare to say that I yield to nobody in 
the world, in reverence and respect to the immortal memory 
of Washington. His life and his principles were the guiding 
star of my life ; to that star I looked up for inspiration and 
advice, during the vicissitudes of my stormy life. Hence I 



SUCCESS OF WASHINGTON, 211 

drew that devotion to my country and to the cause of national 
freedom, which you, gentlemen, and millions of your fellow- 
citizens and your national government, are so kind as to 
honor by unexampled distinction, though you meet it not 
brightened by success, but meet it in the gloomy night of 
my existence, in that helpless condition of a homeless wan- 
derer, in which I must patiently bear the title of an '' imported 
rebel " and of a " beggar " in the very land of Washington, 
for having dared to do what Washington did; for having 
dared to do it with less skill and with less success, but. 
Heaven knows, not with less honesty and devotion than he 
did. 

Well, it is useless to remark that Washington would pro- 
bably have ended with equal failure, had his country not met 
that foreign aid for which they honourably begged. It is 
useless to remark that he would undoubtedly have failed, if 
after the glorious battle of Yorktown he had met a fresh 
enemy of more than two hundred thousand men, such as we 
met, and had been forsaken in that new struggle by all the 
world. It is useless to remark that success should not be 
the only test of virtue on earth, and fortune should not change 
the devotion of a patriot into an outrage and a crime ; and 
particularly not, when success is only torn out of the hands 
of patriotism by foreign violence, and^by the most sacrilegious 
infraction of the common laws of all humanity. All this is 
useless to say. I must bear many things — must bear even 
malignity — but can bear it more easily, because against the 
insult of some who plead the cause of despots in your 
republic, I have for consolation the tranquillity of my con- 
science, thelove of my countrymen, the approbation of generous 
friends, and the sympathy of millions in that very land where 
I meet the title of an '' imported rebel'' 

I was saying, sir, that I yield to no man on earth in re- 
verence to the memory of the immortal Washington ! Indeed, 
I consider it not inconsistent with this reverence to say : 
Never let past ages bind the life of future ; — let no man's 
wisdom be Koran to you, dooming progress to stagnation, 
and judgment to the meagre task of a mere rehearsing memory. 

Thus I would speak, should even that which I advocate, 



212 PRINCIPLES OF WASHINGTON. 

be contrary to what Washington taught — even then I would 
appeal from the thoughts of a man, to the spirit of advanced 
mankind, and from the eighteenth century to the present 
age. 

But fortunately I am not in that necessity ; what I advocate 
is not only not in contradiction, but in strict harmony with 
Washington's principles, so much so that I have nothing else 
to wish than that Washington's doctrine should be quoted 
fairly as a system, and not by picking out single words, and 
concealing that which gives the interpretation to these words. 
Indeed I can wish nothing more than that the principles of 
Washington should be followed. And I may also be permitted 
to say, that not every word of AYashington is a principle, and 
that what he recommended as a policy according to the exi- 
gencies of his time, he never intended to recommend as a rule 
for ever to be followed even in such circumstances which he, 
with all his wisdom, could neither foresee nor imagine. And 
I may be perhaps permitted to wish the people of the United 
States should take for a truth, even in respect to the writings 
of Washington, what we are taught by the ministers of the 
Gospel in respect to the Holy Scriptures — that, by the dis- 
cretion of private judgment, a distinction must be made 
between what is essential and what is not, between what is 
substantial and what is accidental, between what is a principle 
and what is but a history. 

[Kossuth proceeded to argue concerning the just inter- 
pretation of Washington's words, as in his New York speech ; 
and continued :] 

But what is the present condition upon the basis of which 
I humbly plead ? Allow me^ in answer, to quote the words 
of one of your most renowned statesmen, the present Secretary 
of State. You will find then, gentlemen, that every word he 
then spoke, is yet more true and more appropriate to-day. 

" The holy alliance," says Mr. Webster, "is an alliance of 
crowns against the people — of sovereigns against theii* own 
subjects ; — the union of the physical force of all governments 
against the rights of all people, in all countries. Its tendency 
is to put an end to all Nations as such. Extend the principles 
of that alliance, and the nations are no more. There are only 



PRINCIPLES OF WEBSTER. 213 

kings. It divides society horizontally, and leaves the sove- 
reigns above, and all the people below ; it sets up the one 
above all rule, all restraint, and puts down the others to be 
trampled beneath our feet." 

This is the condition of things to which I claim the atten- 
tion of Eepublican America : moreover, for its own interest's 
sake, I claim its attention to the following words from the 
same statesman, worthy of the most earnest consideration 
precisely now-a-days to every American. 

" The declaration of says : the powers have an un- 
doubted right to take a hostile attitude in regard to those 
States in which the overthrow of the government may operate 
as an example." 

Mark ! oh ! mark ! gentlemen, how this abominable doc- 
trine is carried out in Hungary, in Prussia, in Schleswig 
Holstein, and in Hesse Cassel. 

Now, the American statesman proceeds to maintain, that 
every sovereign in Europe who goes to war to repress an 
example, is monstrous. Indeed, if this principle be allowed, 
what becomes of the United States ? Are you not as legiti- 
mate objects for the operation of that principle as any who 
attempt to set an example on the other side of the Atlantic ? 
You thought that when oppressed you might lawfully resist 
oppression. We, in Hungary, thought the same; but against 
us is that monstrous principle of armed intervention against 
setting up an example. So let me therefore ask with* Mr. 
Webster : Are you so sick of your liberty and its eflPects, as 
to be willing to part with that doctrine upon which your very 
existence rests ? Do you forget what you, as a people, owe 
to lawful resistance? and are you willing to abandon the laws 
and rights of society to the mercy of the allied despots, who 
have united to crush them everywhere ? Neutrality ? W^hy ! 
indeed, that would be a strange explanation of neutrality, if 
you would sanction by your indifference, the hostile alliance 
of all despots against republican, nay, against constitutional 
principles on earth. 

But suppose Hungary rises once more to do what Wash- 
ington did (and be sure it will), and Eussia interferes again, 
and you remain again (what some of you call) neutral — that 



214 NATIONAL SELF-PRESERVATION. 

is, you remain indifferent — what is the consequence ? Czar 
Nicholas and Emperor Francis-Joseph may buy and carry 
away arms, ammunition, armed ships — nay, even armed 
sympathizers (if they find them) — to murder Hungary with ; 
and you will protect that commerce, and consider it a lawful 
one. But if I buy the same, you don't protect that com- 
merce ; and if I would enlist an " armed expedition," for 
what the Czar may do against Hungary, you would send me 
to prison for ten years. 

Is that neutrality ? The people of Hungary crushed by 
violence, shall be nothing, its sovereign right nothing ; but 
the piracy of the Czar, encroaching upon the sacred rights of 
mine and many another nations, shall be regarded as legiti- 
mate, against which the United States, though grown to a 
mighty power on earth, able without any risk of its own 
security to maintain the law of nations and the influence of 
its glorious example, should still have nothing to object, only 
because Washington, more than half a century ago, declared 
neutrality appropriate to the infant condition of his country 
then ; and was anxious to gain time, that your country 
might settle and mature its recent institutions, and progress 
to that degree of strength, when it would be able to defy any 
power on earth in a just cause. 

No, gentlemen, my principles may be rejected by the 
United States, but never will impartial history acknowledge 
that by doing thus the United States followed the principles 
of Washington. The ruling policy of Washington may be 
summed up in the word " national self-preservation,''^ to which 
he, as the generous emotions of his noble breast prompted, 
was ever inclined to subordinate everything. 

And he was right. Self-preservation must be the chief 
principle of every nation. But the means of this self-pre- 
servation are different in different times. To-day, I con- 
fidently dare state, the duty of self-preservation commends 
to the United States, not to allow that the principle of 
absolutism should become omnipotent by having a charter 
guaranteed to violate the laws of nature and of nature's God, 
which Washington and his heroic associates invoked, when 
they proclaimed the independence of this Eepublic. 



UNFAIRNESS OF THE U. S. TO HUNGARY. 215 

A second principle of Washington, and precisely in regard 
to foreign nations, is, to extend your commercial relations. 
That is, again, a principle, gentlemen, which I boldly can 
invoke to the support of my humble claims ; because, if the 
league of despots becomes omnipotent in Europe, it is certain 
that the commerce of Eepublican America will very soon 
receive a death blow on the other side of the Atlantic; 
whereas, the maintenance of the law of nations, by affording 
a fair field to Hungary, Italy, and Germany^ to settle their 
accounts with their own domestic oppressors, would open a 
vast field to your commercial relations, larger than imagina- 
tion can conceive. 

The third principle of Washington is to steer clear of per- 
manent alliances with any portion of the foreign world. 
Well, sir, I do not solicit alliances ; I solicit the maintenance 
of the laws of nations, that the unholy alliance of despots 
may not interfere with the natural right of nations, upon 
which you yourselves have established the lofty hall of your 
national independence. 

It is on the stream of these rights that you are borne on 
in a rapid and irresistible course of prosperity. Believe me, 
gentlemen, that course you cannot check — you could not 
abandon the privileges upon which you embarked, without 
exposing to a shipwreck the glorious future of your existence, 
and allow me to state that my poor country has some par- 
ticular claim to be protected by the consistency of your prin- 
ciples, because we are the first nation towards which you have 
not exercised your prhici^les. You say you recognize every 
de facto government. Well, why was this not done with 
Hungary ? We shook off the yoke of the Austrian dynasty ; 
we declared our national independence, and did thus not in 
an untimely movement of popular excitement, but after we 
became de facto independent, after we had, by crushing our 
enemy in our struggle of legitimate defence and driving 
him out from our country, proved to the world that we have 
sufficient strength to take our position amongst the inde- 
pendent nations of the earth. 

And still the United States (which they never yet have 
done) withheld the benefit of their recognition, which we 



216 SYMPATHIES OF WASHINGTON. 

have full reason to believe would have been immediately fol- 
lowed by other recognitions, and thus would have prevented 
the foreign interference of Eussia, by encouraging our national 
independence within those boundaries of diplomatic commu- 
nication which no isolated power dared yet to disregard. 

Sir, I have studied the history of your immortal Washington, 
and have, from my early youth, considered his principles as 
a living source of instruction to statesmen and to patriots. 

I now ask you to listen to Washington himself. 

When, in that very year, in which Washington issued his 
Farewell Address, M. Adet, the French Minister, presented 
to him the flag of the French Eepublic, Washington, as 
President of the United States, answered officially, with these 
memorable w^ords : 

" Born in a land of liberty, having early learned its value, 
having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it, having 
devoted the best years of my life to secure its permanent 
establishment in my country, my anxious recollections, my 
sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, are irresistibly 
attracted, w^hensoever in any country I see an oppressed 
nation unfurl the banner of freedom." 

Thus spoke Washington. Have I then not full reason to 
say, that if he were alive his generous sympathy would be 
with me, and the sympathy of a Washington never was, and 
never would be, a barren word. Washington, who raised 
the word " honesty" as a rule of policy, never would have 
professed a sentiment which his wisdom as a statesmen would 
not have approved. 

Sir ! here let me end. I consider it already as an immense 
benefit that your generous attention connected the cause of 
Hungary with the celebration of the memory of Washington. 

Spirit of the departed ! smile down from heaven upon this 
appreciation of my country's cause ; watch over those prin- 
ciples which thou hast taken for the guiding star of thy noble 
life, and the time will yet come when not only thine own 
country, but liberated Europe also, will be a living monu- 
ment to thy immortal name. 

[Many other toasts, and highly energetic speeches followed, 
which our limits force us to exclude.] 



217 



XXXIL— KOSSUTH'S CREDENTIALS. 

[Farewell to Ohio^ Feh. 2Uh,'] 

Sir, — I am about to bid an affectionate farewell to 
Cincinnati, and through Cincinnati to the commonwealth of 
Ohio — that bright morning star of consolation and of hope 
risen from the West over the gloomy horizon of Hungary's 
and of Europe's dark night ! 

Ohio ! how that name thrills through the very heart of my 
heart, with inexpressible pleasure, like the first trumpet 
sound of resurrection in the ears of the chosen just ! 

Ohio ! how I will cherish that very name, the dearest to 
my soul, after the name of my beloved own dear fatherland. 

How I long for words of flame to express all the warmth 
of my heartfelt gratitude ! And still how poor I feel in 
words, precisely because my heart is so full; so full, that 
I can scarcely speak — because every pulsation of my blood 
is a fervent prayer to God for Ohio's glory and happiness. 

Let me dispense with empty words — let what Ohio did, 
does, and will do, for the cause of European freedom, be its 
own monument ! 

I have met many a fair flower of sympathy in this great 
united republic, but all Ohio has been to me a blooming 
garden of sympathy. From the first step on Ohio's soil 
to the last, — along all my way up to Cleveland down to 
Columbus, and across to Cincinnati, and also beyond the line 
of my joyful way, — in every city, in every town, in every 
village, in every lonely farm, I have met the same generosity, 
the same sympathy. 

The people, penetrated by one universal inspiration of 
lofty principles, told me everywhere that Hungary must yet 
be free ; that the people of Ohio will not permit the laws of 
nations, of justice, and of humanity, to be trampled down by 
the sacrilegious combination of despotism ; that the people 
of Ohio takes the league of despots against liberty and 
against the principle of national self-government, for an insult 
offered to the great republic of the West ; that it takes it for 
an insult which Ohio will not bear, but will put all the 

10 



218 PRACTICAL AID FROM OHIO. 

weight of its power into the political scale. Would that all 
the United States with equal resolution might spurn that 
insult to humanity. 

That is the language which Ohio spoke to me through 
hundreds of thousands of freemen — that is the language 
which Ohio spoke to me through her senators and represen- 
tatives in their high legislative capacity — that is the language 
which Ohio spoke to me through her chief, whom it ' has 
elevated to govern the commonwealth and to execute the 
people's sovereign will. 

The executive power, the legislature, the people, all united 
in that harmony of generous protection to the just cause 
which I humbly plead ; but that is not all yet. Sympathy 
and political protection I have met also elsewhere ; and have 
met it as well in the public opinion of the people as in the 
executive and legislative departments of several States, though 
it is a due tribute of acknowledgment to say, that nowhere 
to that extent and in equal universality as in Ohio. But 
that is yet not all. 

The sympathy of Ohio was rich in fair fruits of sub- 
stantial aid — from the hall of the state legislature down to 
the humble abode of noble-minded working men — and 
associations of friends of Hungary, spread through that 
powerful commonwealth, promise a permanent, noble pro- 
tection to the cause I plead. 

Even the present occasion of bidding farewell to Ohio is 
of such a nature as to entitle me, by its very organization, 
to the hope that you consider your noble task of aiding the 
cause of Hungary not yet done ; but that you have determined 
to go on in a practical direction, till the future, developed 
by your active protection, proves to be richer yet in fruit 
than the present is. 

Considering the almost universal pronouncement of public 
opinion in this great and prosperous commonwealth — con- 
sidering the practic.al character of the people of the West, 
the natural efficiency of this organization, and wTio are 
those who with generous zeal have devoted themselves to 
carry it out on a large extent, — I may be well excused for en- 
tertaining some expectations of no common success — of a 



VALUE OF TIME. 219 

success which also in other parts of this great Union, may 
prove decisive in its effects. No greater misfortune could be 
met with than disappointment in such expectations, which we 
have been by the strongest possible motives encouraged to 
conceive. To be disappointed in hopes we have justly relied 
on, would be beyond all imagination terrible in its conse- 
quences. I shudder at the very idea of the boundless woes 
it could not fail to be attended with, not for myself — I attach 
not much value to my own life, — but for thousands, nay, 
for millions of men. 

I know, gentlemen, that here the question is entirely a 
matter of time. But in regard to time, I am permitted to say 
so much. 

The outbreak of the unavoidable, decisive struggle between 
the two opposite principles of freedom anddespotism is hurried 
on in Europe by two great impulses. The first is the in- 
supportability of oppression connected with the powerfully 
developed organization of the oppressed, which by its very 
progress imposes the necessity of no delay. Be pleased 
earnestly to reflect upon what I rather suggest than explain. 
And be pleased also to read between the lines. I, of course, 
speak not of anything relating to your country. I state 
simply a European fact, of which every thinking man, the 
Czars and their satellites themselves, are fully aware, though 
the how and the where they cannot grasp. 

The second impulse, hurrying events to a decision, is that very 
combined scheme of activity which the despots of Europe too 
evidently display. They know full well that they are on the 
brink of an inevitable retribution ; that their crimes have 
pushed them to the point, where either their power will cease for 
ever to exist, or they must risk all for all. In former times they 
relied at the hour of danger upon the generous credulity of 
nations. By seemingly submitting, when the people arose 
irresistible, they conjured the fury of the storm. They saved 
themselves by promises, and when the danger was over, they 
restored their abused power by breaking their oath and by 
deceiving their nations. By this atrocious impiety you have 
seen several victorious revolutions in Europe deprived of their 
fruits and sinking to nothing by having made compromise with 



220 NEW STATE OF EUROPE. 

royal perjury. I am too honest, gentlemen, not to confess 
openly, that I myself shared this error of the Old World — 
T myself plead guilty of that fatal European credulity. The 
tyrants who by falsehood have gained their end, are aware that 
they have no security ; that the nations have lost faith in 
their oaths, and will never be cheated again. 

Hence, gentlemen, a very essential novelty in the present 
condition of Europe. Formerly every revolution was followed 
by some slight progress in the development of constitu- 
tionalism. A little more liberty to the press, some sort of 
a trial by jury, a nominal responsibility of ministers, or a 
mockery of popular representation in the Legislature — some- 
thing of that sort always resulted, momentarily, out of former 
revolutions ; and then the consciousness of being deceived by 
vile mockery led to new revolutions. 

But when in 1848 and 1849, our victories in Hungary had 
shaken to the very foundation the artificial building of 
oppression, so that there was no more hope left to tyranny, 
but to shelter itself under the wings of Russia, the Czar told 
them — '' well, I accept the part of becoming your master, 
ye kings, and I will help you, but t/ou must be obedient. You, 
yourselves have encouraged revolutions, by making concessions 
to them. I like not this everlasting resurrection of revolutions ; 
it disturbs my sleep. I am not sure not to find it at my own 
home some fine morning. I therefore will help you, my 
servants, but under the condition, that it is not only the bold 
Hungarians who must be crushed, it is revolMtion which must 
be crushed, its very spirit, in its very vitality, everywhere ; 
and to come to this aim, you must abandon all shame as to 
sworn promises ; withdraw every concession made to the spirit 
of revolution; not the slightest freedom, no privilege, no 
political right, no constitutional aspirations must be permitted; 
all and everything must be levelled by the equality of passive 
obedience and absoliite servitude. 

" Look to my Eussia ; I make no concessions, I rule with an 
iron rod, and I am obeyed, All you must do the same ; not 
govern, but domineer by universal oppression. That is my 
sovereign will — obey." 

Thus spoke the Czar, It is no opinion which I relate. It 



DOMINATION OF RUSSIA, 221 

is a fact, a historical fact, which the Czar openly proclaimed 
on several occasions, particularly in that characteristic decla- 
ration, to which the high-minded General Cass alluded in his 
remarkable speech on ^^ non-intervention^^ in the Senate of the 
United States, on the 10th day of February. The Czar 
Nicholas, complaining, that insurrection Jias spread in every 
nation with an audacity which has gained new force in pro- 
portion to the concessions of the Governments'' declares that 
he considers it his divine mission to crush the Spirit of 
Liberty on earth, which he arrogantly terms the spirit of in- 
surrection and of anarchy. 

By this you have the definition of what is meant by the 
words of " war for what principle shaU rule." The issue must 
be felt, not only in Europe, but here also and everywhere ; the 
issue will not leave a chance for a new straggle either to kings 
or to nations for a long time perhaps, and probably for 
centuries. 

In that condition you can see the key of the remarkable 
fact, that when I left my Asiatic prison under the protection 
of the star-spangled flag — nations of different climates, 
different languages, different institutions, different inclina- 
tions, united in the pronunciation of sympathy, expectation, 
encouragement, and hope around my poor humble self, — 
Italians, French, Portuguese, the people of England, Bel- 
gians, Germans, Swiss, and Swedes. * It was the instinct of 
common danger, it was the instinct of necessary union. It 
was no mere tribute of recognition paid to the important 
weight of Hungary in the scale of this intense universal 
struggle. It was still more a call of distress, entrusted by 
the voice of mankind to my care, to bring it over to free 
America, as to tlie natural and most powerful representative 
of that " Spirit of Liberty " against which the leagued 
tyrants are waging a war of extermination with inexorable 
resolution. Yes, it was a call of distress entrusted to my 
care, to remind America that there is a tie in the destinies of 
nations ; and that those are digging a bottomless abyss who 
forsake the Spirit of Liberty, when within the boundaries of 
common civilization half the world utters in agony the call 
of universal distress. 



222 MISSION OF KOSSUTH. 

That is the mission with which I come to your shores ; 
and believe me, gentlemen, that it is the key of that wonder- 
ful sympathy with which the people of this republic answers 
my humble appeal. There is blood from our blood in these 
noble American hearts ; there is the great heart of mankind 
which pulsates in the American breast ; there is the chord of 
liberty which vibrates to my sighs. 

Let ambitious fools, let the pigmies who live on the scanty 
food of personal envy, when the very earth quakes beneath 
their feet, let even the honest prudence of ordinary household 
times, measuring eternity with that thimble with which they 
are wont to measure the bubbles of small party interest, and, 
taking the dreadful roaring of the ocean for a storm in a 
water glass, let those who believe the weather to be calm 
because they have drawn a nightcap over their ears, and, 
burying their heads into pillows of domestic comfort, do not 
hear Satan sweeping in a humcane over the earth; let envy, 
ambition, blindness, and the pettifogging wisdom of small 
times, artistically investigate the question of my official capa- 
city, or the nature of my public authority ; let them scrupu- 
lously discuss the immense problem whether I still possess, or 
possess no longer, the title of my once- Governorship ; let them 
ask for credentials, discuss the limits of my commission as 
representative of Hungary. I pity all such frog-and-mouse 
fighting. 

I claim no official capacity — no public authority — no 
representation ; boast of no commission, of no written and 
sealed credentials. I am nothing but what my generous 
friend, the Senator of Michigan, has justly styled me, "a 
private and banished man." But in that capacity I have a 
nobler credential for my mission than all the clerks of the 
world can write, the credential that I am a " man" — the 
credential that I am a '' patriot " — the credential that I love 
with all sacrificing devotion my oppressed fatherland and 
liberty; the credential that I hate tyrants, and have sworn 
everlasting hostility to them ; the credential that I feel the 
strength to do good service to the cause of freedom ; good 
service as perhaps few men can do, because I have the iron 
will, in this my breast, to serve faithfully, devotedly, inde- 
fatigably, that noble cause. 



CREDENTIALS OF KOSSUTH. 223 

I have the credential that I trust to God in heaven, to 
justice on earth ; that I offend no laws, but cling to the 
protection of laws. I have the credential of my people's 
undeniable confideace and its unshaken faith, to my devotion, 
to my manliness, to my honesty, and to my patriotism; 
which faith I will honestly answer without ambition, without 
interest, as faithfully as ever, but more skilfully, because 
schooled by adversities. And T have the credential of the 
justice of the cause I pleadj and of the wonderful sympathy, 
which, not my person, but that cause, has met and meets in 
two hemispheres. 

These are my credentials, and nothing else. To whom 
this is enough, he will help me, so far as the law permits 
and is his good pleasure. To whom these credentials are not 
sufficient, let him look for a better accredited man. 

I have too lively a sentiment of my own modest dignity, 
ever to condescend to polemics about my own personal merits 
or abilities. I believe my life has been public enough to apper- 
tain to the impartial judgment of history, but it may have 
perhaps interested you to hear, how, in a small and inconsider- 
able circle of the Hungarian emigration, the idea was started 
that I must be opposed, because I have declared against all 
compromise with the House of Austria or with royalty, and 
because by declaring that my direction will be in every case 
only republican, I make every arrangement, without revolution, 
impossible. That I should be thus attacked at this crisis, 
does look like an endeavour to check a benefit to my country. 
But I cannot forbear humbly to beseech you, do not therefore 
think less favourably of my nation and of the Hungarian 
emigration, for which I am sorry that I can do very little, 
because I devote myself and all the success I may meet with 
to a higher aim — to my country's freedom and independence. 
Believe me, gentlemen, that my country and its exiled martyr- 
sons are highly worthy of your generous sympathy, though 
some few of the number do not always act as they should. 

They are but few who do so, and it would be unjust to 
measure all of us by the faults of some few. Upon the whole, 
I am proud to say that the Hungarian emigration was 
scrupulous to merit generous sympathy, and to preserve the 



224 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR WRIGHT. 

honour of the Hungarian name. Eemember that though you 
are Eepublicans, still here in the very metropolis of Ohio a 
man was found to lecture for Eusso-Austrian despotism, and 
to lecture with the astonishing boldness of an immense 
ignorance. 

But that good man I can dismiss with silence, the more 
because it is with high appreciation and warm gratitude that 
I saw an honourable gentleman, animated with the most 
generous sentiments of justice and right, take immediately 
upon himself the task of refutation. I may perhaps be per- 
mitted to remark that that learned and lionourable gentleman, 
besides having nobly advocated the cause of freedom, justice, 
and truth, has also well merited of his co-religionaries, who 
belong together with himself, to the Roman Catholic Church, 

Gentlemen, I have but one word yet, and it is a sad one — 
the word of farewell. Cincinnati, Ohio, farewell ! May the 
richest blessings of the Almighty rest upon thee ! In every 
heart, and in the hearts of my people, thy name will for ever 
live, a glorious object for our everlasting love and gratitude. 



XXXIII.— HAEMONY OF THE EXECUTIVE AND OF 
THE PEOPLE IN AMEEICA. 

\_Speech at Indianapolis.'] 

Kossuth was received at the State House of Indianapolis 
by Governor Wright, who, in the course of his address, 
said : — 

Although I participate with my fellow -citizens in the 
pleasure occasioned by your presence among us, yet it is not 
as an individual that I greet you with the words of welcome 
and hospitality. No, sir, — it is in the name of the people 
of the State, whom I represent, and whose warrant I feel 
that I have ; and I bid you welcome to-day, and assure you 
not only of my own, but of their sympathy and encourage- 
ment in the great cause you so ably represent. 

He closed with the words : — 

If it shall be your fortune to lead your countrymen again 
in the contest for liberty, be assured that the people of the 



BIRTH-ERAS OF CIVILIZATION. 225 

United States, at least, will not be indifferent, nor, if need 
be, inactive spectators of a conflict that may involve, not 
only the independence of Hungary, but the freedom of the 
world. 

Again I bid you a most cordial welcome to the state of 
Indiana. 

Kossuth replied : — 

Governor, — Amongst all that I have been permitted to 
see in the United States, nothing has more attracted my 
attention than that part of your democratic institutions 
which I see developed in the mutual and reciprocal relations 
between the people and the constituted public authorities. 

In that respect there is an immense difference between 
Europe and America, for the understanding of which we 
have to take into account the difference of the basis of the 
political organization, and together with it what the public 
and social life has developed in both hemispheres. 

The great misfortune of Europe is, that the present 
civilization was born in those cursed days when Eepublican- 
ism set and Hoyalty rose. It was a gloomy change. Nearly 
twenty centuries have passed, and torrents of blood have 
watered the red-hot chains, and still the fetters are not broken ; 
nay — it is our lot to have borne its burning heat — it is our 
lot to grasp with iron hand the wheels of its crushing car. 
Destiny — no : Providence — is holding the balance of deci- 
sion : the tongue is wavering yet : one slight weight more 
into the one, or into the other scale, will again decide the 
fate of ages, of centuries. 

Upon this mischievous basis of royalty was raised the 
building of authority ; not of that authority which commands 
spontaneous reverence by merit and the value of its services, 
but of that authority which oppresses liberty. Hence the 
authority of a public officer in unfortunate Europe consists 
in the power to rule and to command, and not in the power 
to serve his country well — it makes men oppressive down- 
wards, while it makes them creeping before those who are 
above. Law is not obeyed out of respect, but out of fear. 
A man in public office takes himself to be better than his 
countrymen, and becomes arrogant and ambitious ; and 

]0 5 



226 DISCORDS IN EUROPE. 

because to hold a public office is seldom a claim to confi- 
dence, but commonly a reason to lose, confidence; it is not 
a mark of civic virtue and of patriotic devotion, but a stain 
of civic apostacy and of venality ; it is not a claim to be 
honoured, but a reason to be distrusted ; so much so, that 
in Europe the sad word of the poet is indeed a still more 
sad fact. — 

" When vice prevails and impious man bears sway, 
The post of honour is a private station." 

So was it even in my own dear fatherland. Before our 
unfortunate but glorious revolution of 1848, the principle 
of royalty had so much spoiled the nature and envenomed 
the character of public office, that (of course except those 
who derived their authority by election — which we for our 
municipal life conserved amongst all the corruption of Euro- 
pean royalty through centuries) no patriot accepted an office 
in the government : to have accepted one was to have resigned 
patriotism. 

It was one of the brightest principles of our murdered 
Eevolution — that public office was restored to the place of 
civic virtue, and opened to patriotism, by being raised from 
the abject situation of a tool of oppression, to the honourable 
position of serving the country well. Alas ! that bright day 
was soon overpowered by the gloomy clouds of despotism, 
brought back to our sunny sky by the freezing gale of Kussian 
violence. And on the continent of Europe there is night 
again. There is scarcely one country where the wishes and 
the will of the people are reflected in the government. There 
is no government which can say : 

" My voice is the echo of the people's voice — I say what 
my people feels ; I proclaim what my people wills ; I am the 
embodiment of his principles, and not the controller of his 
opinion : the people and myself — we are one." 

No, on the continent of Europe people and governments 
are two hostile camps. What immense mischief, pregnant 
with oppression and with nameleiss woe, is encompassed 
within the circle of this single fact ! 

How different the condition of America ! It is not men 



CONCOUDS IN AMERICA. 227 

who rule, but the law ; and law is obeyed, because the people 
is respecting the general will by respecting the law. Public 
office is a place of honour, because it is the field for patriotic 
devotion. Governments have not the arrogant pretension 
to be the masters of the people ; but have the proud glory 
to be its faithful servants. A public officer ceases not to be 
a citizen ; he has doubly the character of a citizen, by sharing 
in and by executing the people's will. And whence this 
striking difference ? It is because the civilization of America 
is founded upon the principle of Democracy. It was born 
when Eoyalty declined, and Eepublicanism rose. Hence 
the delightful view, not less instructive than interesting, that 
here in America, instead of the clashing dissonance between 
the words " government" and '' people" we see them melting 
into one accord of harmony. 

Thus here the public opinion of the people never can 
fail to be a direct rule for the government, and reciprocally 
the word of the government has the weight of a fact by the 
people's support. When your government speaks, it is the 
people which speaks. 

Sir, I most humbly thank your Excellency, that you have 
been pleased to afford to me the benefit of hearing and seeing 
that delightful as well as happy harmony between the people 
and the government of the State of Indiana, in the support 
of that noble and just cause which I plead, on the issue of 
which, not the future of my country only depends, but 
together with it, the future condition of all those parts of our 
globe which are confined within the boundaries of Christian 
civilization, which, be sure of it, gentlemen, in the ultimate 
issue, will have the same fate. 

Sir, it is not without reason, that at Indianapolis in par- 
ticular, — and to your Excellency, the truly faithful, the high- 
minded, and the deservedly popular Chief Magistrate of this 
Commonwealth, I speak that word. It is not the first time that 
your Excellency, surrounded as now, has spoken as the 
honoured organ of the public opinion of Indiana. It is not 
yet two years since your Excellency did the same on the 
occasion of a visit of the favourite son of Kentucky,'«Oover- 
nor Crittenden. I well remember the topic of your eloquence. 



228 MODE OF SECURING THE UNION. 

It was the solicitude of Indiana in regard to the glorious 
Union of these Eepiiblics. May God preserve it for ever ! 
But precisely because you, the favourite son of Indiana 
and the honoured representatives of the sovereign people of 
Indiana — in one accord of perfect harmony esteem the Gordian 
knot of the Union above all, allow me to say once more, that 
if the United States permit the principle of non-interference 
to be blotted out from the code of nations on earth, foreign 
interference mingling with some domestic discord, perhaps 
with that which two years ago called forth your patriotic 
solicitude for the Union ; yes, foreign interference mingling 
with some of your domestic discords, will be the Alexander 
who will cut asunder the Gordian knot of your Union, in this 
our present century. 

Eepublics exist upon principles : they are secure only when 
they act upon principles. He who does not accept a 
principle, asserted by another, will not long enjoy the benefit 
of it himself; and nations always perish by their own sin. 
Oh may those whom your united people entrusted with the 
noble care to be, guardians of your Union — be pleased to 
consider that truth ere it be too late. 

Sir, to the State of Indiana I am in many respects parti- 
cularly obliged. True, I have had invitations to visit many 
other States, but the invitation from the State of Indiana 
was first received. Please to accept my warmest thanks. I 
have seen in other States a harmony between the people and 
the government, but nowhere has the Governor of a State 
condescended to represent the people in a public welcome, 
nowliere stepped out as the orator of the people's sympathy 
and its sentiment. I most humbly thank you for this honour. 

In Maryland, the Governor introduced me to the Legisla- 
ture. In Pennsylvania the chief Magistrate was the organ 
of a common welcome of the Legislature and Citizens. In 
Massachusetts he took the lead as the people's elect in recom- 
mending my principles to the Legislature — and in Ohio the 
chief Magistrate, by accepting the Presidency of the Associa- 
tion of the friends of Hungary, became generally the executive 
01 the people's practical sympathy, which so m.agnanimously 



WAKENING OF AMERICA. 229 

responded to the many political manifestations of its Eepre- 
bcntatives in the Legislature. 

Let me hope, sir, that as you have been generously pleased 
to be the interpreter of Indiana's welcome and sympathy, you 
will also not refuse to become the Chief Executive Magistrate 
to the practical development of the same. 

I may cordially thank, in the name of my cause, the people 
of Indiana, its Governor, and Eepresentatives, for the high 
honour of the Legislature's invitation, and of this public 
welcome. 

XXXIV.— IMPOETANCE OF FOEEiaN POLICY, AND OF 
STRENaTHENmCl ENGLAIS^D. 

\_Speech at Louisville, March 6^A.] 

At the Court House, Louisville, Kossath was addressed 
by Bland Ballard, Esq., and replied as follows : 

Whatever be the immediate issue of that discussion 
about foreign policy, which now so eminently occupies public 
attention throughout the United States, from the Capitol and 
White-house at Washington down to the lonely farms of your 
remotest territories, one fact I have full reason to take for 
sure, and that is : That when the trumpet- sound of national 
resurrection is once borne over the waves of the Atlantic 
announcing to you that nations have risen to assert those 
rights to which they are called by nature and nature's God — 
when the roaring of the first cannon-shot announces that the 
combat is begun which has to decide which principle is 
to rule over the Christian world — absolutism or national 
sovereignty — there is no power on earth which could induce 
the people of the United States to remain inactive and in- 
different spectators of that great struggle, in which the 
future of the Christian world — yes, the future of the United 
States themselves — is to be decided. The people of the 
United States will not remain indifferent and inactive spec- 
tators and will not authorize, will not approve, any policy of 
indifference. You yourself have told me so, sir. 

In the position of every considerable country there is a 



230 NEGLECT OF FOREIGN POLICY. 

necessity of a certain course, to adopt which cannot be 
avoided, and may be almost called destiny. The duty as 
well as the wisdom of statesmen consists in the ability to 
steer, in time, the vessel into that course, which, if they 
neglect to do in time, the price will be higher and the profit 
less. 

There is scarcely anything which has more astonished me 
than the fact — that, for the last thirty-seven years, almost 
every Christian nation has shared the great fault of not 
caring much about what are called foreign matters, foreign 
policy. Precisely the great nations, England, France, Ame- 
rica, which might have regulated the course of their govern- 
ments for a very considerable period, abandoned almost 
entirely that part of their public concerns, which with great 
nations is the most important of all, because it regulates the 
position of the country in its great national capacity. The 
slightest internal interest was discussed publicly and regu- 
lated previously by the nation, before the government had to 
execute it ; but, as to the most important interest — the national 
position of the country and its relations to the world. Secret 
Diplomacy, a fatality of mankind, stepped in, and the nations 
had to accept the consequences of what was already done, 
though they subsequently reproved it. In England, I, four 
months ago, avowed that all the interior questions together 
cannot equal in importance the exterior ; tliere is summed up 
the future of Britain : and if the people of England do not 
cut short the secrecy of diplomacy — if it do not in time take 
this all absorbing interest into its own hands, as it is wont 
to do with every small home interest, it will have to meet 
immense danger very soon, as this danger has already seriously 
accumulated by former neglect. Here too, in the United 
States, there is no possible question equal in importance to 
foreign policy, and especially in regard to European matters. 
And I say that, if the United States do not in due time 
adopt such a course, as will prevent the Czar of Eussia, and 
his despotic satellites, from believing that the United States 
give them entirely free field to regulate the condition of 
Europe, which cannot fail to react morally and materially 
on your condition, then indeed embarrassments, sufferings, 



ARISTOCRACY IN ENGLAND. 231 

and danger will accumulate in a very short time over 
you. 

Great Britain, it is clear as matters now stand, can avoid 
a war with the continental powers of Europe only by joining 
their alliance, or at least by giving them security, that 
England will not only not support the liberal movement on 
the continent, but that it will submit to the policy of the 
absolutist powers. It is not impossible that England will 
yield. Do not forget, gentlemen, that an English ministry, 
be it Tory or Whig, is always more or less aristocratic, and it 
is in the nature of aristocracy that it may love its country 
well, but indeed aristocracy more. There is therefore always 
some inclination to be on good terms with whoever is an 
enemy to what aristocracy considers its own enemy, that is, 
democracy. This consideration^ together with the above- 
mentioned carelessness of the people about foreign policy, 
gives you the key to many events which else it would be 
impossible to understand. People against another people 
should never feel hatred, but brotherly sympathy. The 
memory of oppression suffered from governments should 
never be imparted to nations, and children should never be 
hated, despised, or punished, because their fathers have 
sinned. We Hungarians wrestled for centuries with Turkey, 
and now we are friends, true friends, and natural allies against 
a common enemy. Several of my own ancestors lost their 
lives in Turkish wars, or their property in ransom out of 
Turkish captivity ; yet to me it is a Turkish Sultan who 
saved my life and gave bread to thousands of my country- 
men, which no other power did on earth. Such is the change 
of time. It is Eussia which crushed my bleeding fatherland, 
yet the inexorable hatred of my heart does not extend to the 
people of Eussia. I love that people — I pity its poor, un- 
fortunate instruments of despotism. Wherever there is a 
people, there is my love. Therefore, let the passionate 
excitement of past times subside before the prudent advice 
of present necessities. You are blood from England's blood, 
bone from its bone, and flesh and from its flesh. The Anglo- 
Saxon race was the kernel around which gathered this glorious 
fruit — your Eepublic. Every other nationality is oppressed. 



232 PROSPECTS OF ENGLAND. 

It is the Anglo-Saxon alone which stands high and erect in 
its independence. You, the younger brother, are entii'ely 
free, because Eepublican. They, tlie elder brother, are 
monarchical, but they have a constitution, and they have 
many institutions which even you retained, and, by retaining 
them, have proved that they are institutions congenial to 
freedom, and dear to freemen. The free press, the jury, free 
speech, the freedom of association, the institution of muni- 
cipalities, the share of the people in the legislature, are 
English institutions ; the inviolability of person and the 
inviolability of property are English principles. England is 
the last stronghold of these principles in Europe. Is this 
not enough to make you stand side by side with those prin- 
ciples in behalf of oppressed humanity ? 

If the United States and England unite in policy now, 
and make by their imposing attitude a breakwater to the 
ambitious league of despotism, the Anglo-Saxon race, with 
all who gathered around that kernel, will not only have the 
glorious pleasure of having saved the Christian world from 
being absorbed by despotism, but you especially will have 
the noble satisfaction of having contributed to the progress 
and to the development of freedom in England, Scotland, 
and Ireland themselves : for the principles of national sove- 
reignty, independence, and self-go veniment, when restored 
on the continent of Europe, must in a beneficent manner 
reach upon those islands themselves. They may remain 
monarchical, if it be their will to do so, but the parliamentary 
omnipotence, which absorbs all that you call ^tate rights and 
self-government, will yield to the influence of Europe's 
liberated continent. England will govern its own domestic 
concerns by its own parliament, and Scotland its own, and 
Ireland its own, just as the states of your galaxy do : the 
three countries are destined to mutual connection, by their 
geographical relations, by far more than New York with 
Louisiana or Carolina with California. By conserving the 
state-rights of self-government to all of them they wdll 
unite in a common government for the common interest, as 
you have done. Union, and not unity, mud he the guiding 
star of the future with every power composed of several 



IMPORTANCE OF AMERICAN POLICY. 233 

distinct bodies, and though I am a republican more perhaps 
than thousands who are citizens of a republic, inasmuch as I 
have known all the curse of having had a king — still such a 
development of Great Britain's future, were it even connected 
with monarchy, I, a true republican, would hail with fervent 
joy. To contribute to such a future, I indeed should con- 
sider more practical support to the cause of freedom, to the 
cause of Ireland itself, than, out of passionate aversions either 
for past or present wrongs, to discourage, nay, almost force 
Great Britain to submit to the threatening attitude of despots 
or even to side with them against liberty. Out of such a 
submission there can never result any good to any one in 
the world, and certainly none to you — none to the nations 
of Europe — none to Ireland — but increased oppression to 
Europe and Ireland, and danger to you yourselves. 

I therefore say that a war side by side with England 
against the leagued despots, if war should become a necessity, 
is not an idea to look on in advance with aversion. You have 
united with England on a far less important occasion. And 
should England not yield to the despots, I most confidently 
ask whoever in the United States inclines to judge matters 
according to the true interests of his country and not by 
private passion, whether you could remain indifferent in 
a struggle, the issue of which either would make England 
omnipotent on earth, or crush liberty down throughout the 
world, leave America exposed to the pressure of victorious 
despotism, and before all, exclude republican America from 
every political and commercial relation with all Europe. 
Should England see that she will not stand alone in pro- 
testing against interference, she will, she must protest 
against it, because it is the condition of her own future. 
But if the United States should again adhere to the policy of 
indifference (which is no policy at all), then indeed England 
may perhaps yield to the threatening attitude of the abso- 
lutist powers. The policy of the United States may now 
decide the direction of the policy of England, and thus 
prevent immense mischief, incalculable in its consequences, 
even for the future of the United States themselves. 

It is here I take the opportunity briefly to refer to an 



234 



ANALYSIS OF 



assertion of an American statesman, who holds a high place 
in your affections and in my respect. He advances the 
theory, that, should you now take the course which I humbly 
claim, the despots of Europe would be provoked by your 
example to interfere with your institutions and turn upon 
you in the hour of your weakness and exhaustion, because 
you have set an example of interference. 

I indeed am at a loss to understand that. Is it inter- 
ference I claim ? No ; precisely the contrary, if you now 
declare "that your very existence being founded on that 
principle of the eternal laws of nature and of nature's God 
— that every nation has the independent right to regulate 
its domestic concerns, to fix its institutions and its govern- 
ment" — you cannot contemplate with indifference that the 
absolutist powers form a league of mutual support against 
this principle of mankind's common law. You therefore 
protest against this principle of " foreign interference." I 
indeed cannot understand by what logic such a protest 
could be taken up by the despotic powers as a pretext for 
interference in your domestic concerns. My logic is entirely 
different. It runs thus : If your country remains an in- 
different spectator of the violation of the laws of nations by 
foreign interference, then it has established a precedent — it 
has consented that the principle of interference become inter- 
polated into the book of international law, and you will see 
the time when the league of despots commanding the whole 
force of oppressed Europe will remind you thus : 

" Eussia has interfered in Hungary, because it considered 
the example set up by Hungary dangerous to Eussia. 
America has silently recognized the right of that interference. 
Erance has interfered in Eome, because the example of the 
Eoman democracy was dangerous to Erance. America has 
silently agreed. The absolutist governments, Wi protection 
of their divine right, have leagued in a saintly aUiance, with 
the openly avowed purpose to aid one another by mutual 
interference against the spirit of revolution and the anarchy 
of republicanism. America has not protested against it ; 
therefore the principle of foreign interference against every 
dangerous example has, by common consent of every power 



HENRY CLAY^S OBJECTIONS. 235 

on earth — contradicted by none, not even by America — - 
become an established international law." 

And reminding you thus, they will speak to you in the 
very words of that distinguished statesman to whom I 
respectfully allude. 

" You have quitted the ground upon which your national 
existence is founded. You have consented to the alteration 
of the laws of nations — the existence of your republic is 
dangerous to us ; we therefore, believing that your anarchical 
{that is, republican) doctrines are destructive of, and that 
monarchical principles are essential to, the peace and security 
and happiness of our subjects, will obliterate the bed which 
has nourished such noxious weeds -, we will crush you down as 
the propagandists of doctrines too destructive to the peace and 
good order of the world, ^^ 

I have quoted the very words, very unexpectedly given to 
publicity, — words, which I, out of respect and personal affec- 
tion, did not answer then, precisely because I took the 
interview for a private one. Even now I refrain from 
entering into further discussion, out of the same considera- 
tions of respect, though I am challenged by this unlooked 
for publicity. I will say nothing more. But after having 
quoted the very words, I leave to the public opinion to judge 
whether their authority is against or for a national protest 
against the principle of foreign interference. 

Let once the principle become established with your silent 
consent, and you will soon see it brought home to you, and 
brought home in a moment of domestic discord, which Eussian 
secret diplomacy and Eussian gold will skilfully mix. l^ou may 
be sure of it ; and this mighty Union will be shaken by that 
very principle of foreign interference which you silently let 
be established as an uncontroverted rule for the despots of 
the earth. 

Great countries are under the necessity of holding the 
position of a power on earth. If they do not thus, foreign 
powers dispose of their most vital interests. Indifference to 
the condition of the foreign world is a wilful abdication of 
their duty, and of their independence. Neutrality, as a 



236 WHAT THINKS EUROPE OF AMERICA? 

constant rule, is impossible to a great power. Only small 
countries, as Switzerland and Belgium, can exist upon the 
basis of neutrality. 

Great powers may remain neutral in a particular case, but 
they cannot take neutrality for a constant principle, and 
they chiefly cannot remain neutral in respect to principles. 

Great powers can never play with impunity the part of no 
power at all. 

Neutrality when taken as a principle means indifference to 
the condition of the world. 

Indiflerence of a great power to the condition of the world 
is a chance given to foreign powers to regulate the interests 
of that indifi'erent foreign power. 

Look in what light you appear before the world with your 
policy of indifference. Look at the instructions of your 
navy in the Mediterranean, recently published, forbidding 
American officers even to speak politics in Europe. Look 
at the correspondences of your commodores and consuls, 
frightened to their very souls that a poor exile on board an 
American ship is cheered by the people of Italy and France, 
and charging him for the immense crime of having met 
sympathy without any provocation on his part. Look at the 
cry of astonishment of Eui'opean writers, that Americans in 
Europe are so little republican. Look how Erench Napo- 
leonist papers frown indignantly at the idea that the Con- 
gress of the United States dared to honour my humble self. 
Look how they consider it almost an insult, that an American 
Minister, true to his always professed principles, dares to 
speak about European politics. Look how one of my aris- 
tocratical antagonists, who quietly keeps house in Erance, 
where I was not permitted to pass, and who, a tool in other 
hands, would wish to check my endeavours to benefit my 
country, because he would like to get home in some other 
way than by a revolution and into. a republic — look how he, 
from Paris, in London papers, dares to scorn the idea that 
America could pretend to weigh anything in the scale of 
European events. 

Do you like this position, free republicans of America? 



SPEECH OF MR. KASSON. 237 

And yet that is your position in the world now, and that 
position is the consequence of your adhering to your policy of 
indiflPerence, at a time when you needed to act like a power 
on earth. 

Kemember the Sibylline books. The first three were burned 
when you silently let Eussian interference be accomplished in 
Hungary, and did not give us your recognition when we had 
achieved and declared our independence. 

Six books yet remain. The spirit of the age, the Sibylla 
of opportunity, holds a second three books over the fire. Do 
not allow her to burn them — else only the Jast three remain, 
and I fear you will have, without profit, more to pay for them 
than would have bought all the nine, and with them the glory 
and happiness of an eternal, migJity Republic ! 

Gentlemen, I humbly thank you for your kindness, and bid 
vou an affectionate farewell. 



m^^^ 



XXXV.— CATHOLICISM VERSUS JESUITISM. 

\_At St. Louis^ (Missouri.)^ 

Mr. Kasson addressed Kossuth in an ample speech; in 
which he said : 

Everywhere have the untrammeled masses of this people, 
as you passed, lifted up their hands and voices, and sup- 
plicated the Almighty to give to you blessing, and to your 
country redemption. Let this be some recompense for the 
privations you have encountered, while, like ^neas, you have 
been wandering an exile from your native, captured, prostrate 
Troy. 

I should not do my whole duty without saying, in behalf 
of the thousands assembled here, that we have an unshaken 
confidence in Hungary's chosen leader. We are not so blind 
that we cannot observe how no envenomed shaft was fixed to 



238 PERSECUTION PROVES SUCCESS. 

the bow-string against him, in England and America, while 
he was yet a helpless and powerless refugee, within Turkish 
hospitality. But when the people were gathering around him 
in free countries, shoulder to shoulder — when even the hearts 
of statesmen began to open to him, and hope dawned in the 
Hungarian sky once more, then it was these arrows of 
detraction darkened the air, shot from the Court of the French 
Usurper, or from the pensioners of autocratic bounty. Your 
patient labours and forbearance in your country's cause, while 
thus assailed, have won for you, sir, our sincere respect, and 
another wreath at the hand of the Muse of History. 

Kossuth replied : 

Gentlemen, — During my l)rief sojourn in your hospitable 
city, I have heard so much local pettiness and so much hypo- 
critical tactics of men imported from Austria to advocate the 
cause of Eusso-Austrian despotism in Eepublican America, 
and chiefly in your city here, that indeed I began to long for 
the pure air where the merry sunshine, as well as the melan- 
choly drop of rain, the roaring of the thunder storm, equally 
as the sigh of the breeze, tell to the oppressors and their tools, 
and not only to the oppressed, that there is a God in heaven 
who rules the universe by eternal laws ; the Almighty Father 
of humanity, omnipotent in wisdom, bountiful in His om- 
nipotence, just in His judgment, and eternal in His love ; the 
Lord who gave strength to the boy David against Goliath, who 
often makes out of humble individuals efficient instruments 
to push forward the condition of mankind towards that des- 
tiny which His merciful will has assigned to it — His will, 
against which neither the proud ambition of despots, nor the 
skill of their obsequious tools can prevail — in Him I put my 
trust and go cheerfully on in my duties. I am in the right 
way to benefit the cause, noble and just and great, to which 
I devoted my life ; for if there were no success in what I am 
engaged, the despots would neither fear, nor hate, nor per- 
secute me. 

Their persecution imparts more hope to my breast than all 
your kindness ; and I give you my word that if I have the 
consciousness of having well merited in my past the hatred 



CALUMNIES AT ST. LOUIS. 239 

and the fear of tyrants and their instruments, so may God 
bless me as I will do all a mortal man can do to merit that 
hatred and that fear still more. 

Why ? Am I not standing on the banks of the Mississippi, 
cheered, welcomed, and supported, as warmly and as heartily 
as when I stepped first upon your glorious shores ? Oppo- 
sition, hostility, venomous calumny, have exhausted all means 
to check the sympathy of the people. And has that sympathy 
subsided? has it abated? is it checked? No, it rolls on 
swelling as I advance — here I have again an imposing, evidence 
before my eyes, here in St. Louis, my namesake city, where 
so much, and that so perseveringly, was done to prevent this 
evidence. 

Yes, it rolls, and will roll on, swelling till it will finally 
submerge all endeavours to mislead the instincts of freemen, 
to fetter the energies of the nation, to stifle its spirit, and to 
check the growing aspirations of the people's upright heart. 

When the struggle is about principles, indifi'erence is sui- 
cide. Nay, indifference is impossible : for indifference about 
the fate of that principle upon which your national existence 
and all your future rests — is passive submission to the opposite 
principle — it is almost equivalent to an alliance with the 
despots. He who is not for freedom is against freedom. There 
is no third choice. 

The people's instinct feels the danger of losing an irre- 
parable opportunity, and hence the fact, never yet met in 
history, that a homeless exile becomes an object of such 
sympathy, rolling on like a sea, in spite of all the passionate 
rage of my enemies, and all the Christian tolerance of the 
Eeverend Father Jesuits, which they in such an evident 
manner show to me. It is time to advertise them by a few 
remarks that I am aware of their hostility, and ready to meet 
it openly. I make this advertisement by design here, because 
it is not my custom to attack from behind or in the dark. 
Mine is not the famous doctrine, that the end sanctifies the 
means. I like to meet the enemy face to face — a fair field 
and fair arms. 

And in one thino: more I will not imitate mv reverend 



240 WHY ARE THE JESUITS 

opponents. I will never indulge in any personalities, never 
act otherwise than becoming to a gentleman. If they choose 
to pursue a different course, let them do so, and let them 
earn the fruits of it. 

My humble person I entirely submit to the good pleasure 
of their passion. If they tell you, gentlemen, that I am no 
great man, they speak the truth. Being on good terms with 
my conscience, I do not much care to be on bad terms with 
Czars and Emperors, their obedient servants, and the reverend 
father Jesuits. Nay, if I were on good terms with them, 
I scarcely could remain on good terms with my conscience. 
So much for myself — now a few words as to the question 
between us. 

I am claiming moral and material aid against that Czar 
of Eussia who is the most bloody persecutor of Eoman 
Catholics. The present Pope himself, before the revolution, 
when he was yet more of a High Priest than of an Italian 
Despot, and cared more about spiritual than temporal busi- 
ness, openly and bitterly complained in the councils of the 
Cardinals against that bloody persecution which the Eoman 
Catholics have suffered from the Czar of Eussia. Now, con- 
sidering that I plead for republican principles, to which the 
Eeverend Father Jesuits shoxild be liere warmly attached, if 
they are willing to have the reputation of good citizens, and 
not to be traitors to your Eepublic, which affords to them 
not only the protection of its laws, but also the fuU enjoy- 
ment of all the privileges of your republican freedom ; — it is 
indeed a strange, striking fact, to see these reverend fathers 
here in a Eepublic so w^armly advocating the cause of des- 
potism, and so passionately persecuting the cause I humbly 
plead, which at the same time is the cause of political free- 
dom and religious liberty for numerous millions of Eoman 
Catholics throughout Europe. 

As I am somewhat acquainted with the terrible history of 
that Order, I thought to find the explanation of this striking 
fact, in the historical ambition of that Order to rule the world 
— this, their everlasting standard idea, to which they in all 
times sacrificed everything, and misused even the holiest of 



HOSTILE TO KOSSUTH ? 241 

all religion, as an instrument to that ambition. But here in 
St. Louis I got hold of a definite circumstance which makes 
the matter quite clear, 

I hold in my hand the printed Catalogue of the Society of 
Jesuits in the province of Missouri, as they term your state. 
Herein I see that amongst the thirty-five members officiating 
in the college of the Father Jesuits, in St. Louis, there are 
not less than eight Eeverend Father Jesuits imported from 
Austria. Now you see why I am so persecuted here. This 
plain fact tells the story of a big book. 

But amongst all that the reverend gentlemen oppose to me 
there are only two considerations to which the honour of my 
cause and of my nation forces me to answer in a few remarks. 
They charge against me that my cause is hostile to the 
Eoman Catholic religion, and to get the Irish citizens to side 
with them for the support of Eusso-Austrian despotism they 
charge me that I am no friend of Ireland. 

I, As to the Catholic religion — I indeed am a Protestant, 
not only by birth, but also by conviction ; and warmly pene- 
trated by this conviction, I would delight to see the same 
shared by the whole world. But before all, I am mortally 
opposed to intolerance and to sectarism. I consider religion 
to be a matter of conscience which every man has to arrange 
between God and himself. And therefore I respect the 
religious conviction of every man. I claim religious liberty 
for myself and my nation, and must of course respect in others 
the right I claim for myself. There is nothing in the world 
capable to rouse a greater indignation in my breast than 
religious oppression. But particularly I respect the Catholic 
religion, as the religion of some seven millions of my country- 
men, to whom I am bound in love, in friendship, in home 
recollections, in gratitude, and in brotherhood, with the most 
sacred ties. And I am proud to say, that as in general it is 
a pre-eminent glory of my country, to be attached to the 
principle of full religious liberty, without any restriction, 
for all to all, so it is the particular glory of my Eoman 
Catholic countrymen not to be second to any in the world, on 
the one side in attachment to their own religion, and on the 
other side in toleration for other religions. 

11 



242 WHO ARE THE TRUE CATHOLICS? 

The Austrian dynasty having been continually encroaching 
upon the chartered right of Protestantism, who were those 
who struggled in the first rank for our rights ? Our Eoman 
Catholic countrymen ! It was a glorious sight, almost un- 
paralleled in history, but was also fully appreciated by the 
Hungarian Protestants. All of us, man by man, would rather 
sacrifice life, and blood, and goods, than to allow that a hair's 
breadth should be crushed from the religious liberty of our 
Eoman Catholic countrymen. 

Now, what position took the Eoman Catholics of Hungary 
in our past struggle? There was not only no difference 
between them and the Protestants in their devotion for our 
country's freedom and independence, but they, according to 
the importance of their number, took in the struggle a very 
pre-eminent part. The Eoman Catholic Bishops of Hungary 
protested against the perjurious treachery of the dynasty; 
many of them suffer even now for their devotion to justice, 
liberty, and right ; and who is the Jesuit who dares to affirm 
that he is more devoted to the Catholic religion than the 
Eishops of Hungary ? Our battalions were filled with Eoman 
Catholic volunteers ; Catholic priests led their faithful flocks 
to the battle field ; our National Convention was composed 
in majority of Catholics — all the Catholic population, without 
any exception, consented to and cheered enthusiastically my 
being elected Governor of Hungary, though T am a Protes- 
tant. I had and I have their friendship, their devotion, their 
support ; and when I formed the first Ministry of independent 
Hungary, not only a full half of the new Ministry I entrusted 
to Eoman Catholics, but especially I nominated a Eoman 
Catholic Bishop to be Minister of public instruction, and all 
the Protestants of my country hailed the nomination with 
applause. Such is the cause of Hungary. Who dares now 
to charge me that that cause is hostile to the Eoman CathoKc 
religion ? 

But I am allied with Mazzini, with the Eomans, and with 
the Italians : thus goes on the charge : and these cursed 
Italians are enemies to the Pope. Not to the Pope as High 
Priest of the Eoman Catholic church, but as despotic sovereign 
of Eome and his corrupted temporal government — the worst 



WHAT SAYS HISTORY OF THE JESUITS? 243 

of human inventions. How long lias it been a principle of 
tlie Eoman Catholic religion, that the Eomans should not be 
Eepublicans ? and that the high priest of the Eoman church 
should be a despotic sovereign over the Eoman nation ? and 
in that capacity be a devoted ally and obedient servant to the 
Czar of Eussia, the sworn enemy and bloody persecutor of 
Eoman Catholicism ? Why, when in 1849, the French 
Eepublic sent an army against the Eoman Eepublic to restore 
the Pope, not to his spiritual authority, because that was by 
nobody contradicted, but to his temporal despotism, the whole 
danger could have been averted by the Eomans by becoming, 
en masse, Protestants. The idea was pronounced in Eome 
and not a single Eoman accepted it. They preferred to 
struggle without hope of victory — they preferred to bleed and 
to die rather than to abandon their faith. 

Now, who can dare to insult that people — who can dare to 
insult the Eoman Catholics of Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Ger- 
many, Poland, Prance — who can dare to insult the thousands 
of thousands of Eoman citizens of the United States — Sena- 
tors, Governors, Judges — men of all public and private posi- 
tions — who can dare to insult them, as hostile to their own 
religion, because they unite to support that cause which I 
plead ? And because they side with republican freedom, with 
civil and religious liberty, against Eusso-Austrian despotism ? 
Who can dare to affirm that he represents the Catholic 
religion, if three millions of Cathjolic Eomans do not repre- 
sent it ? The Eeverend Pather Jesuits perhaps 1 

I take the liberty to say in a few words : They are that 
society which Clement XIV, the high priest of the Eoman 
Catholic Church, abolished as dangerous to the Eoman Catholic 
religion; they are those whom every Eoman Catholic King 
excluded from his territories as dangerous to religion and 
social order ; they are those, the ascendancy of whom has 
always been a period of disaster and confusion to the Eoman 
Catholic church ; they are those who now make an alliance 
or rather a compact of submission with the Czar of Eussia, 
like that which evil-doers, according to the superstition of 
past ages, made with the evil spirit. And here, in free 
republican America, they plead the cause of Eussian 



244 RUSSIAN CRUELTY TO CATHOLICS. 

despotism; the cause of that Czar, who is the relentless 
persecutor of Catholicism; who forced the United Greek 
Catholics, in the Polish Provinces, by every imaginable 
cruelty, to abjure their connection with Eome, and carried 
out, at a far greater expense of human life than Ferdinand 
and Isabella or Louis XIY, the most stupendous proselytism 
which violence has yet achieved. More than a hundred 
thousand human beings had died of misery, or under the 
lash, as the Minsk nuns were proved to have been killed, 
before he terrified these unhappy millions into a submission 
against which their consciences revolted. Yet with this man, 
red with Catholic blood, and damned with the million curses 
of their co-religionists, the Rev. Father Jesuits are in alliance ; 
and why ? Because it is a characteristic of that Order, to be 
ambitious to rule the world. To achieve this, they have now 
made the Pope the obedient satrap of the Czar. Into the 
enormity of this, enlightened Catholics see clearly. Roman 
Catholics of Hungary, of Poland, of Italy, Germany, and 
Prance have understood this. Is it possible that those of 
this republic should less understand it ? Why, in Italy and 
Rome itself, a majority of the Catholic clergy are hostile to 
the temporal authority of the Pope, and sympathize with 
Mazzini so generally, that of seventeen conspirators recently 
arrested for conspiring in favour of the Republic against 
Austria, sixteen were priests belonging to the humbler orders 
of the clergy. 

Gentlemen, I am sorry to have to argue such a question in 
the United States. If it be indeed true, that amongst the 
Roman Catholics here an opposition is got up against our 
cause, let them remember that in opposing me, they oppose 
the independence and freedom of millions of Hungarian 
Catholics, — of Catholic Italy, — of the Catholic half of Ger- 
many, and of Catholic Prance ; they are supporting the Czar, 
the most bloody enemy of their religion. Yet I am glad to 
be able to say, that not all the Roman Catholics here are 
opposed to me. I have warm friends and kind protectors 
among them. The gallant General Shields, — Mr. Downs, 
the Senator from Louisiana, — the warm-hearted Governor of 
Maryland,— Judge Le Grand at Baltimore, and many other 



WHAT SAY AMERICAN CATHOLICS? 245 

of my kindest friends, are Uoman Catholics. From New 
York onward, multitudes of Roman Catholics have shared the 
the general sympathy. And why not ? surely freedom is a 
treasure to every religious denomination whatsoever.* 

So much for the charge that the cause which I plead — 
the cause of millions of Eoman Catholics — is hostile to the 
Eoman Catholic religion. Should I be forced to enter upon tlris 
topic once more, I will take the heart-revolting history of 
those who have thus calumniated our cause, into my hands, 
and recall to the memory of public opinion the terrible pages 
of blood, ambition, countless crimes, and intolerance ; but 
I hope there will be no occasion for it. 

II. Now as to Ireland. Where is a man on earth, with 
uncorrupted soul and with liberal instincts in his heart, who 
would not sympathize with poor, unfortunate Ireland ? 
Where is a man, loving freedom and right, in whom the 
wrongs of Green Erin would not stir the heart ? Who could 
forbear warmly to feel for the fatherland of the Grattans, of 
O'Connells, and of Wolfe Tones ? I indeed am such, that 
wherever is oppression and a people, there is my love. 

But why do I not plead Erin's wrongs ? I am asked. My 
answer is : am I not pleading the principle of Liberty ? and 
is the cause of freedom not the cause of Ireland ? 

I see all the despots of the European continent united in 
a crusade against liberty ; there are two powers still neutral, 
the position of which may well decide for or against des- 
potism ; these two powers are Great Britain and America. 
If the Almighty blessed my endeavours — if I could succeed 
to contribute something, that America, and by its influence 
over the public opinion of the people of England, Great 
Britain itself, should side with Liberty, from whatever con- 
sideration — from whatever interest, against despotism — then 
indeed I boldly declare before God and men, that I have 
achieved a greater benefit and done a better service to the 
future of Ireland, than all who go about loudly crying about 
Erin's wrongs, and not doing anything for the triumph of 

* Some sentences have been added from the Pittsburg speech, at 
the end of which the same subject was treated. 



246 TRUE POLICY FOR IRELAND. 

tliat cause which is about to be decided, and is the cause of 
all nations, who are oppressed, and of all who are, or will be 
free. "Whereas, if, by uniting in the chorus of empty words, 
I should contribute to alarm not only the government, but 
also the people of England, and to force that government to 
side with despotism in the decisive struggle against liberty, 
(to which that government, being as it is, aristocratical, 
feels but too much inclined,) then indeed I am sure I should 
do such a wrong to the future of Ireland, as the sacrifice of 
my life and torrents of blood, and the sufferings of genera- 
tions, could not expiate. 

Be sure therefore, gentlemen, that every man who pleads 
for liberty, pleads for Ireland; be sure, that every blow 
stricken for liberty is stricken also for Ireland ; that not 
always the most noisy are the best friends ; and prudent 
activity is often better service than any show of eloquent 
words. 

And so let me hope, that while it is sure that he who is 
for freedom is for Ireland, it also will be found that Irish 
blood can never be against liberty. 

And as to you all, gentlemen, let me hope that, however 
the advocates of despotism may try to mislead public opinion 
in free America, the uncorrupted noble instinct of the people 
will prove to the world that it is not in vain, that the down- 
trodden spirit of liberty raises the sign of distress towards 
you, and that the wronged and the oppressed can confidently 
appeal for help, for justice and for redress, to the free and 
powerful Eepublic of America. 

I thank you, gentlemen, for the patience with which you 
have listened during this torrent of rain. It shows that your 
sympathy is warm and sincere — one which cannot be cooled 
down or washed away. 



(i^^)) 



247 



XXXYI.— THE IDES OF MAHCH. 

{Farewell Sjpeech at St. Louis, March I5^y^.l 

Ladies and Gentlemen : To-day is the fourtli anniver- 
sary of the Eevolution in Hungary. 

Anniversaries of Eevolutions are almost always connected 
with the recollection of some patriots, death-fallen on that 
day, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, martyrs of devotion 
to their fatherland. 

Almost in every country there is some proud cemetery, or 
some modest tombstone, adorned on such a day by a garland 
of evergreen, the pious offering of patriotic tenderness. 

I past the last night in a sleepless dream. And my soul 
wandered on the magnetic wings of the past, home to my 
beloved bleeding land, and I saw in the dead of the night, 
dark veiled shapes, with the paleness of eternal grief upon 
their brow, but terrible in the tearless silence of that grief, 
gliding over the churchyards of Hungary, and kneeling down 
to the head of the graves, and depositing the pious tribute of 
green and cypress upon them; and after a short prayer rising 
with clenched fists, and gnashing teeth, and then stealing 
away tearless and silent as they came — stealing away, because 
the blood-hounds of my country's murderer lurks from every 
corner on that night, and on this day, and leads to prison 
those who dare to show a pious remembrance to the beloved. 
To-day, a smile on the lips of a Magyar is taken for a crime of 
defiance to tyranny, and a tear in his eye is equivalent toarevolt. 
And yet I have seen, with the eye of my home -wandering 
soul, thousands performing the work of patriotic piety. 

And I saw more. When the pious offerers stole away, I 
saw the honoured dead half risen from their tombs, looking 
to the offerings, and whispering gloomily, '' still a cypress, 
and still no flower of joy ! Is there still the chill of winter 
and the gloom of night over thee, fatherland ? are we not 
yet revenged ?" and the sky of the east reddened suddenly, 
and quivered with bloody flames, and from the far, far west, 
a lightning flashed like a star-spangled stripe, and within 
its light a young eagle mounted and soared towards the 
quivering flames of the east, and as he drew near, upon his 



248 THE IDES OF MARCH 

approaching, the flames changed into a radiant morning sun, 
and a voice from above was heard in answer to the question 
of the dead : 

" Sleep yet a short while ; mine is the revenge. I will 
make the stars of the west, the sun of the east : and when ye 
next awake, ye will find the flower of joy upon your cold bed." 

And the dead took the twig of cypress, the sign of resur- 
rection, into their bony hands and lay down. 

Such was the dream of my waking soul, and I prayed, and 
such was my prayer : " Father, if thou deemest me worthy, 
take the cup from my people, and give it in their stead to me." 
And there was a whisper around me like the word " Amen." 
Such was my dream, half foresight and half prophecy; but 
resolution all. However, none of those dead whom I saw, 
fell on the 1 5 th of March . They were victims of the royal perjury 
which betrayed the 15th of March. The anniversary of our 
revolution has not the stain of a single drop of blood. 

We, the elect of the nation, sat on that morning busily 
but quietly in the legislative hall of old Presburg, and without 
any flood of eloquence, passed our laws in short words, that 
the people shall be free ; the burdens of feudality cease ; the 
peasant become free proprietor; that equality of duties, 
equality of rights, shall be the fundamental law ; and civil, 
political, social, and religious liberty, the common property 
of all the people, whatever tongue it may speak, or in what- 
ever church pray, and that a national ministry shall execute 
these laws, and guard with its responsibility the chartered 
ancient independence of our Fatherland. 

Two days before, Austria's brave people in Vienna had 
broken its yoke ; and summing up despots in the person of 
its tool, old Metternich, drove him away, and the Hapsburgs, 
trembling in their imperial cavern of imperial crimes, trem- 
bling, but treacherous, and lying and false, wrote with yard- 
long letters, the words, "Constitution" and "Free Press," 
upon Vienna's walls ; and the people in joy cheered the 
inveterate liars, because the people knows no falsehood. 

On the 14th I announced the tidings from Vienna to our 
Parliament at Presburg. The announcement was swiftly 
carried by the great democrat, the steam-engine, upon the 



IN 1848. 249 

billows of the Danube, down to old Buda and to young Pesth, 
and while we, in the House of Eepresentatives, passed the 
laws of justice and freedom, the people of Pesth rose in 
peaceful but majestic manifestation, declaring that the people 
should be free. At this manifestation, all the barriers raised 
by violence against the laws, fell of themselves. Not a drop 
of blood was shed. A man who was in prison because he 
had dared to write a book, was carried home in triumph 
through the streets. The people armed itself as a National 
Guard, the windows were illuminated, and bonfires burnt; 
and when these tidings returned back to Presburg, blended 
wdth the cheers from Yienna, they warmed the chill of our 
House of Lords, who readily agreed to the laws we pro- 
posed. And there was rejoicing throughout the land. Por 
the first time for centuries the farmer awoke with the pleasant 
feeling that his time was now his own — for the first time 
went out to till his field with the consoling thought that the ' 
ninth part of his harvest will not be taken by the landlord, 
and the tenth by the bishop. Both had fully resigned their 
feudal portion, and the air was brightened by the lustre of 
freedom, and the very soil budding into a blooming paradise. 

Such is the memory of the 15th of March, 1848. 

One year later there was blood, but also victory, over the 
land ; the people, because free, fought like demi-gods. Seven 
great victories we had gained in that month of March. On 
this very day, the remains of the first 10,000 Eussians fled, 
over the frontiers of Transylvania, to tell at home how heavily 
the blow falls from free Hungarian arms. It was in that very 
month that one evening I lay down in the bed, whence in the 
morning Windischgratz had risen; and from the battle-field 
(Isaszeg) I hastened to the Congress at Debreczin, to tell 
the Eepresentatives of the nation : " It is time to declare our 
national independence, because it is really achieved. The 
Hapsburgs have not the power to contradict it more." Nor 
had they. But Eussia, having experienced by the test of its 
first interference, that there was no power on earth caring 
about the most flagrant violation of the laws of nations, and 
seeing by the silence of Great Britain and of the United 
States, that she may dare to violate those laws, our heroes 

11 § 



^50 THE IDES IN ^50 AND ^51. 

had to meet a fresh force of nearly 200,000 Eussians. No 
power cheered our bravely won independence, by diplomatic 
recognition ; not even the United States, though they always 
professed their principle to be that they recognize every 
de-facto government. We therefore had the right to expect a 
speedy recognition from the United States. Our struggle rose 
to European height, but we were left alone to fight for the 
world ; and we had no arms for the new battalions, gathering 
up in thousands with resolute hearts and empty hands. 

The recognition of our independence being withheld, com- 
mercial intercourse for procuring arms abroad was impossible 
— the gloomy feeling of entire forsakednes& spread over our 
tired ranks, and prepared the field for the secret action of 
treachery; until the most sacrilegious violation of those 
common laws of nations was achieved and the code of " nature 
and of nature's God" was drowned in Hungary's blood. 
And I, who on the 15th of March, 1848, saw the principle 
of full civil and religious liberty triumphing in my native 
land — who on the 15th of March, 1849, saw this freedom 
consolidated by victories — one year later, on the 15th of March, 
1850, was on my sorrowful way to an Asiatic prison. 

But wonderful are the works of Divine Providence. 

It was again in the month of March 1851, that the gene- 
rous interposition of the United States cast the first ray of 
hope into the dead night of my captivity. And on the 15th 
of March, 1852, the fourth anniversary of our Eevolution, 
guided by the bounty of Providence, here I stand in the very 
heart of your immense Eepublic ; no longer a captive, but free 
in the land of the free, not only not desponding, but firm in 
confidence of the future, because raised in spirits by a swelling 
sympathy in the home of the brave, still a poor, a homeless 
exile, but not without some power to do good to my country 
and to the cause of liberty, as my very persecution proves. 

Such is the history of the 15 th of March, in my humble 
life. Who can tell what will be the character of the next 
15th of March? 

Nearly two thousand years ago the first Csesar found a 
Brutus on the Ides or 15th of March. May be that the Ides 
of March, 1853, will see the last of the Caesars fall under the 



ON THE HUNGARIAN EXILES. 251 

avenging might of a thousand-handed Brutus — the name 
of whom is " the people " — inexorable at last after it has 
been so long generous. The seat of Caesars was first in the 
south, from the south to the east, from the east to the west, 
and from the west to the north. That is their last abode. 
None was lasting yet. Will the last, and worst, prove luckier ? 
No, it will not. While the seat of Csesars was tossed around 
and thrown back to the icy north, a new world became the 
cradle of a new humanity, where in spite of the Csesars, the 
genius of freedom, raised (let us hope) an everlasting throne. 
The Caesar of the north and the genius of freedom have not 
place enough upon this earth for both of them ; one must 
yield and be crushed beneath the heels of the other. Which 
is it. Which shall yield ? — America may decide. 

Allow me to add a few remarks in dry and plain words, on 
other subjects. It is not necessary to explain why I am 
attacked by Eussia, Austria, and their allies. But some of 
you, gentlemen, may have felt surprized to see that two 
Hungarians have joined in the attack, both of whom accepted 
the office of ministers from my hands, and held that office 
under my good pleasure, and from my will, till we all three 
proceeded into exile on the same evening. My two assailants 
now live and act under the protection of Louis Napoleon, 
who did not permit me even to pass through France. 

You may yet find perhaps some more joining them, but 
the number will not be large. Oh ! the bitter pangs of an 
exile's daily life are terrible. I have seen many a character 
faltering under the constant petty care of how to live, which 
stood firm like a rock under the storm of a quaking world, 
therefore I should not be surprized to find yet some few 
joining in those attacks, as I have neither means nor time to 
care for the wants of individuals, not even of my own children. 
What I get is not mine, but my country's ; and must be 
employed to secure its future prospects ; and it may be that 
others may avail themselves of this circumstance, and show 
some temporary compassion to private misfortune, under the 
condition of secession from me, with the purpose of being then 
able to say that the cause of Hungary is hopeless, because not 
even the Hungarian exiles live in concord. That may happen 



252 ON THE SMALL HUNGARIAN 

thus with some few ; for hunger is painful : but few they will 
be. The immense majority of my brother exiles will rather 
starve than yield to such a snare. 

There may be some also that will fall victims to the craft 
of skilful aristocratic diplomatists, who would fain keep or get 
the reputation of liberal men, but without the necessity of 
becoming really liberal. That class of influential persons may 
give some hope — even some half indefinite promise of support 
to the cause of Hungary (which they never intend to fulfil), 
under the condition of a peaceful compromise with the House 
of Austria upon a monarchical-aristocratical basis, and not in 
that way which I have proclaimed openly in England, know- 
ing that every root of the monarchical principle is torn out 
from the breasts of the people of Hungary, so that we can 
never be knit again. Therefore the future of Hungary can 
only be republican, and there is no door to that future, but 
to continue the struggle. There may perhaps be some few 
honest but weak men, who, weary of a homeless life, would 
fain return home, even under the condition of monarchical- 
aristocratical compromise which some skilful diplomatists 
make glitter into their eyes. 

But as to those two who do good service to the tyrant of 
their and my country, the very circumstance that they were 
silent when I (because a prisoner) was not able to work 
much, but are trying to check my endeavours, now that I am 
about to achieve something which can only prove to be a 
benefit to Hungarians, — smaller or greater, but only a benefit 
and in no case a harm ; this veiy circumstance shows the 
nature of their attacks. But as to the pretence, by which 
they try to lull to sleep their own consciences, that was 
revealed to me by a copy of a confidential communication of 
one of their silent associates to a private circle of friends, 
w^here it is stated, that, as I have declared exclusively for a 
republic, a party must be got up under the nominal leader- 
ship of Bathyanyi, on a monarchical basis, because my views 
leave no liojpe to get home in an Tionourahle manner^ otherwise 
than hy a revolution. 

That is the key of the dispute. As to myself, I am a 
republican, and will never be a subject to a king, any more 



OPPOSITION TO KOSSUTH. 253 

than be a king myself. But I love my country too sincerely 
to favour the course I would pursue, on my own private 
sentiments alone. I know the Hapsburg, and I know my 
countiy. I have weighed my people's revolution, wishes 
and will, and weighed the conditions of the only possible 
success. Upon this basis I act, and am happy to say that 
the considerate prudence of a statesman, and the duties of a 
patriot, not only act in full harmony with my own personal 
republican convictions, but indeed cannot allow me in any 
other course. Either freedom and our popular rights have 
no future, not only in Hungary, but indeed in Europe, or 
that future will be, can be, and shall be only republican for 
the Hungarians. It is more than foolish to think that either 
an insurrectionary war can be prevented in Europe, or that 
that war can terminate otherwise than either by a consolidated 
despotism or republicanism. No other issue is possible. 
Therefore, however mean be the private motives of the hos- 
tility of those, my very few Hungarian enemies, I pity them. 
Out of too great a desire to get home, they have made their 
return in every case impossible. Not all the power of earth 
could afford them security at home against the indignation 
of the people. Not, if I succeed to liberate my country, for 
the people will consider them as traitors, who have done all 
they could to prevent that liberation ; not, if I should fail, 
because then the people will believe that their counter- 
machinations are what caused me to fail. 

So much for them. Eut the confidence with which I look 
to the republican freedom of Hungary has been confirmed, 
by considering how weak must the case be of those who urge 
you to indifference, when they are forced to resort to the 
argument that we have no chance of success. 

I have often answered that objection, which in itself is 
a distrust in God, in justice, in right, and in the blessings 
of humanity. Allow me to-day in addition, only one remark. 
Two days ago the rumour was spread that Louis Napoleon 
was killed. It was remarkable to see how those who comite- 
nance despotism, grew livid by despair, and how those who 
doubt about our success rose in spirits and in confidence. 
Some time ago a similar false rumour caused almost a com- 



254 AMERICA ON THE PACIFIC. 

mercial crisis in the cotton market of New Orleans. Now 
how can the security of that cause be trusted, where the mere 
possible death of a single individual, and of such an indi- 
vidual, can so crush every calculation upon the solidity of 
the peace of oppression ? 

Allow me to draw your attention to a circumstance which 
one of your countrymen, William Henry Prescott, of South 
Carolina, has recommended to public attention, already in the 
year 1849, in his pamphlet, entitled *A few Thoughts on the 
Foreign Policy of the United States.' The position of the 
United States underwent an immense change, as soon as 
your boundaries extended to the Pacific ; extensive commer- 
cial relations with Asia became a necessity. You feel it — 
the very movements now commenced in respect to Japan 
bear witness to it. Let those movements be completed, and 
whom will you meet? Eussia. That is the old story. 
Everybody who is willing to have some influence in the East 
must meet Eussia, w^hose sterling thought is to exclude all 
other powers from the East. 

England is to you the competitor in the commerce of the 
East; and competitors may well have a fair field for them both; 
but Eussia is not a competitor there, she is an enemy. Look 
to the Mediterranean Sea, and remember the everlasting 
thought of Eussia to crush Turkey and to get hold of Con- 
stantinople. What is the key of this eternal fond desire, 
inherited from Peter the Great ? It is not the mere desire of 
territorial aggrandizement ; the real key is, that it is only by 
the possession of Constantinople that Eussia, a great territorial 
power already, can become also a great maritime power. The 
Mediterranean is what Eussia wants, to be the mistress of 
Europe, Asia, of Africa, and of the world. But the Sultan, 
sitting on the Bosphorus, confines the navy of the Czar to 
the Black Sea, an interior lake, without any outlet but by 
the beautiful Bosphorus. Constantinople taken, it is Eussia 
which controls the Mediterranean : — a circumstance of such 
immense importance, that Mr. Prescott says, it would be a 
sufficient reason for direct and positive interference — that is, 
for war. 

There — there — in Tiirlcey^ will he decided the fate of the 



AMERICA IN TURKEY. 355 

world. Perhaps there will be not only the end, but also 
the beginning of the end; and some American politicians 
say, the United States can do nothing for Europe's liberty, 
but Turkey can, — holding only the Bosphorus against an 
inroad from Sebastopol ! — Turkey, with its brave four hun- 
dred thousand men — the natural ally of all those European 
nations who will, who must, struggle against Eussian pre- 
ponderance. How wonderful ! The Bosphorus in the hands 
of the Sultan, saves the world from Eussian dominion ; and 
yet I am asked, what can America do for Europe ? How 
many men-of-war have you in the Mediterranean ? I would 
you had more. Would you had some other anchorage in the 
Mediterranean for your glorious flag ! Turkey has many a 
fine harbour, and a great deal of good will. The Turkish 
Aghas now would not be afraid to see cheered, for instance, 
by the inhabitants of Mytilene, the American flag, should it 
ever happen that that flag Avere cast in protection around my 
humble self; nay, I am sure they would smilingly join in 
the harsh but cordial '^ Jclwsli guelden^ se;pa gueldin,"" which is 
more than a thrice welcome in your language. But the word 
welcome reminds me that I have to say to you farewell — and 
that is a sad word in the place where I have met so warm a 
welcome, but it must be done. Can I hope to have the 
consolation of knowing that in bidding farewell to my name- 
sake city, I leave high-minded men, who, remembering that 
they have seen the Hungarian exile on the Ides of March, 
will have faith in the future of freedom's just cause, and 
make the central city of the great United Eepublic the centre 
of numerous associations of the friends of Hungary in the 
Great West, whence I confidently hope the sun of freedom 
will move towards the East. 

Ladies and gentlemen, I bid you farewell, a heartfelt, 
affectionate farewell. 

[From St. Louis, Kossuth proceeded farther south; but we 
do not find any novelty in his speech at New Orleans, March 
30th. The most notable thing in that meeting, is the cordial 
pronouncement of the Hon. E. W. Moise, in the name of the 
City Authorities and People of New Orleans, in favour of 
Hungary and Governor Kossuth : thus distinctly sliowing 



256 THANKS TO SENATOR FOOTE. 

that the commercial metropolis of the South sympathizes 
with European liberty equally as the North. But it is suffi- 
cient here to have indicated the fact.] 



XXXYII.— HISTORY OF KOSSUTH'S LIBERATION. 

[^Jacl^son, Mississippi — {Visit to Senator Foote) April XstJ] 

Kossuth had felt it a duty of gratitude, on his return from 
New Orleans, to visit Jackson, the chief city of Mississippi, in 
order to express his thanks in person to Senator Eoote, then 
Governor of the State, for having moved a resolution in the 
Senate to send a steamer to Constantinople for Kossuth, and 
afterwards, a resolution tendering to him a cordial national 
welcome at Washington. On his proposing this visit, he 
received an enthusiastic invitation from the citizens at large, 
as was expounded to him by Governor Foote in a very cordial 
speech, which ended with the words : 

In the name of the sovereign people of Mississippi, and by 
the special request of those of our citizens whom you see 
before you and around you, I now bid you welcome to our 
own Capital, and pray that a bounteous Providence may 
vouchsafe to you and the sacred cause of which you are the 
advocate, its most auspicious countenance and protection. 

Kossuth replied : 

Your Excellency has been pleased to bestow a word of 
approbation upon the manner in which I have spoken and 
acted since I am here in the United States, especially as to 
frankness : which frankness, on another side, has occasioned 
much hostility toward me. AUow me, on the present occa- 
sion, to exercise that same frankness. If I were less frank, I 
should perhaps tell you I had a fond desire to see Mississippi, 
and thank the citizens for sympathy to my country. But I 
claim not a merit which I do not possess. I did not come 
to meet the people. My only motive was one of gratitude 
toward you, sir. 

One anxiety has weighed upon my breast ever since I have 
been in the United States, and that is, lest I lose the oppor- 
tunity to say to you, with a warm grasp of the hand, and in a 



GENEROSITY OE THE SULTAN, 257 

few but heartfelt words, how thankful I feel for the important 
part you have been pleased to take in my liberation from 
captivity. I hope to God, you will never have reason to 
regret what you have done for me. Allow me to state that 
there was something Providential in the fact, and in the time 
of intercession in my behalf. 

The Sultan is a generous man ; I can bear testimony to 
that. When Eussia and Austria, proudly relying upon their 
armies and the flush of victory, arrogantly demanded that we 
should be surrendered to the hangman of my fatherland ; and 
when the majority of the Divan (the great Council of Turkey) 
taking a shortsighted view of the case, and influenced by the 
impending danger, had abeady consented to the arrogant 
demand, and when, in consequence thereof, the abandonment 
of our religion was proposed as the only means to save our 
lives, then the Sultan, informed of the matter, and following 
the noble impulse of his generous heart, declared that he would 
prefer to perish rather than dishonour his name — he would 
therefore accept the dangers of war, rather than disregard the 
great duty of humanity — thus if he be doomed to perish, he 
would at least perish in an honourable way. By that noble 
resolution our lives were saved. But European diplomacy 
stepped in, to convert the accorded hospitality into a prison ;* 
the Sultan being left alone, not supported, not encouraged by 
any one soever, but assailed by complications, ill advised by 
fear, and threatened by many, yielded at last, but yielded with 
the intention to restore us to our natural rights, as soon as 
he could be sure that he stood not forsaken and alone in 
acknowledging the right of humanity. For a long while, no 
encouragement came, and we lingered in our prison, forsaken 
and without hope. You, sir, moved a resolution in the 
Senate of the United States, In consequence thereof, the 

* I am permit tied to explain, that Kossuth had in view not the 
action of one power only, but the total result of all the powers. 
While the Sultan knew what the arms of Russia were meant for, and 
oould not learn whether the fleet of England was meant for anythiug 
but a mere show (for Sir Stratford Canning " had no orders" to use 
it), the practical advice of diplomacy was, not, to do what was just, 
but, to make the least disgraceful and least dangerous compromise^ 



258 CRISIS OF AMERICAN AID. 

great Eepublic of the West, by its generous oflPer, cast a ray 
of consolation into my prison, and gave encouragement to the 
Sublime Porte. The English and the French governments, 
unwilling to appear less liberal, both approved the course of 
the United States. England made even a similar offer as 
America, and the Sultan, glad to see that he was no longer 
alone in asserting what is right, agreed to the offer, notwith- 
standing all the machinations of my enemies, and I and my 
countrymen became free. 

Now suppose, sir, you had not introduced that resolution 
then, and the star-spangled flag had not been cast in pro- 
tection around me — suppose that the coup d'etat of Louis 
Napoleon had found me in prison still — that coup d'etat which 
caused a change of the ministry in England, — what would 
have been the consequence ? England would probably have 
remained indifferent, and France would have certainly opposed 
the proposition of the United States — or rather, supported 
the cause of Austria ; and the Sultan abandoned by the con- 
stitutional powers of Europe, would have been forced to make 
Kutaya what the arrogant despots desired — a physical, or at 
least, a moral grave for me — and instead of the new hope and 
fresh resolution which my liberation inspired into nations 
groaning under the weight of a common oppression, there 
would be now a gloom of despondency spread over all who 
united with me in spirit, in resolution, and in sentiments. 

Therefore, in whatsoever I may yet be useful through my 
regained actMti/, it is due to you, sir. Without the inter- 
cession of the Unite(J States, there would have been no field 
of activity left me. / 

Allow me now to speak on another matter connected with 
this. Among the calumnies perpetually thrown out at me, 
is one which I cannot pass in silence, because it charges me 
with ingratitude to the United States, saying that I misuse 
the generosity of your country, which granted me protection 
and an asylum, upon my accepting the condition not to meddle 
any more loith politics, but to abandon the cause to which I 
have devoted my life — to retire from public life, and to lay 
down my head to rest. 

Now, before God and man, tliis representation is entirely 



THE AID WAS UNCONDITIONAL. 259 

false. No such condition was added to the generous offer 
of the United States ; and I declare, that however much I re- 
gard such an offer, had this condition been attached, I would, 
in no case, have accepted it. Life is of no value to me, 
except inasmuch as I can do some service to my country's 
cause. 

Therefore, under the condition of forsaking my country, 
I would not accept happiness — not liberty — not life. This I 
have said before. 

It is due from me to the honour of the Turkish Govern- 
ment to declare, that the Sublime Porte not only attached 
no condition at all to my liberation, but explicitly and offi- 
cially intimated to me, that having once decided to set us 
free, it was unwilling to do things by halves ;- — we had there- 
fore full and unrestricted liberty, on leaving Turkey, to go 
and to stay where we pleased — to take such a course as we 
chose, and that to that purpose, an American and an English 
vessel would be ready at the Dardanelles, and it would depend 
on our choice, on board of which we embarked. Indeed, I 
have an official communication on the part of the English 
Government in my hands, by which I was informed, that 
the only reason why the appointed English vessel came not 
to the Dardanelles was, that I and my associates had declared 
that we preferred to embark on board the American ship. 

But again : in respect to that embarkation, I must state 
that, in the resolution of the Congress, one word being con- 
tained which might have been subject to different interpreta- 
tion, T considered it my duty to declare frankly to the legation 
of the United States at Constantinople, that I neither was, 
nor would be, willing to assume the character of an emigrant ; 
but would only be considered an exile^ driven away by foreign 
violence from my native land, but not without the hope to 
get home again to free and independent Hungary ; therefore, 
that I not only would not pledge my word to go directly to the 
United States, or to remove thither permanently, but, upon 
regaining my liberty, intended to devote it to win back for 
my country its sovereign independence, which we had achieved 
and proclaimed, and which was wrested from us by the most 
sacrilegious violation of the laws of nations. I got an answer 



260 ATTACKS FROM 

fully satisfactory on the part of your legation, assuring me 
that the United States would never consent to give me a 
new prison, instead of liberty ; and that there was, and could 
be, no intention on the part of the United States to restrain 
my freedom or my activity, beyond the limits of your common 
laws, which equally obligatory and are equally protective to 
every one, so long as he chooses to stay in the United States. 
Upon this I accepted thankfully the generous offer of the 
United States. I wrote a letter of thanks to His Excellency 
the President, and ordered my diplomatic agent in England 
to write a similar one to the Honourable Secretary of State, 
expressing, that I considered the struggle for our national 
independence not yet finished, and that I would devote my 
regained liberty to the cause of my fatherland. 

Nearly three months after these declarations, the Mississippi 
steam-ship arrived, and I embarked, having again, previously 
and on board, constantly declared, that it was my fervent 
wdsh to visit the United States, but not without previously 
visiting England, on board the same frigate, if the favour 
should be granted to me ; else on board another ship from 
a Mediterranean port, if needs must be. This is the true 
history of the case. 

I hope you will excuse me for having answered for once 
a misrepresentation which charges me with bad faith and 
ingratitude, such as neither have I merited, nor can I 
bear * * ^. 



XXXVIII.— PEONOUNCEMENT OF THE SOUTH. 

\_Mdhiley Alabama, Ajpril. ^dJ] 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — I did not expect to have either 
the honour of a public welcome, or the opportunity of address- 
ing such a distinguished assembly at Mobile — not as if I had 
entertained the slightest doubt about the generous sentiments 
of this enlightened community, but because I am called by 
pressing duties to hasten back to the east of the United States. 
Indeed only the accident of not finding a vessel ready to leave 



SENATOR CLEMENS. 261 

when I arrived here, has enabled me to see the fair flower of 
your generosity added to the garland of syrapathy, which the 
people of your mighty Eepublic has given me, and which will 
shine from the banner of resistance to all-encroaching des- 
potism, that banner which the expectations of millions call me 
to raise. 

But however unexpected my arrival, the congenial kindness 
of your warm hearts left me not unnoticed and un cheered ; 
and besides the joyful consolation which T feel on this occasion, 
there is also important benefit in the generous reception you 
honour me with. 

Firstly, because one of the United States Senators of 
Alabama, Mr. Clemens, was pleased to pronounce himself not 
only opposed to my principles, but hostile to my own humble 
self. I thank God for having well deserved the hatred of 
Czars and Emperors ; and so may God bless me, as I will all 
my life try to deserve it still more ; but I cannot equally say, 
that I have deserved the inclemency of Mr. Clemens, though it 
be not the least passionate of all. Well, ladies and gentlemen, 
after the spontaneous sympathy which I here so unexpectedly 
meet, I may be permitted to believe that it is not the State 
of Alabama, but Mr. Clemens only whom I have to count 
amongst my persecutors and my enemies. 

Secondly, I must mention, that it is my good fortune not 
often to meet arguments opposed to my arguments, but only 
personal attacks. Well, that is the best acknowledgement 
which could have been paid to the justice of my cause. For 
even if I were all that my enemies would like to make me 
appear, would thereby the cause I plead and the principles I 
advocate be less just, less righteous, and less true ? Now 
amongst those personal attacks there is one which says, that 
I am so impertinent as to dare appeal from the government 
to the people ; and that / try to sow dissension between the 
people and the government, I declare in the most solemn 
manner, this imputation to be entirely unfounded and calum- 
niatory. Who ever heard me say one single word of complaint 
or dissatisfaction against your national government ? T\lien 
have 1 spoken otherwise than in terms of gratitude, high 
esteem, and profound veneration about the Congress and 



262 JUST GRATITUDE OF KOSSUTH 

Government of the United States ? and how could I have 
spoken otherwise ; being, as I am, indebted tq. Congress and 
Government, for my liberation, for the most generous pro- 
tection, and for the highest honours a man was ever yet 
honoured with ? And besides, I have full reason to say that 
it is entb^ely false to insinuate that in political respects I had 
been disappointed with my visit to Washington City. — no, it is 
not respect alone, but the intensest gratitude that I feel. 
The principles and sentiments of the Chief Magistrate of your 
great republic, expressed to the Congress in his official mes- 
sages ; the principles of your government so nobly interpreted 
by the Hon. Secretary of State, at the congressional banquet, 
confirming expressly the contents of his immortal letter to 
Mons. liulsemann ; the further private declarations, in 
regard to the practical applications of those governmental 
principles ; all and everything could but impress my mind 
with the most consoling satisfaction and the warmest grati- 
tude ; — as may be seen in the letter of thanks which on the 
eve of my departure I sent to His Excellency the President 
and to both Houses of Congress. 

That being my condition, who can charge me with sowing 
dissension between the people and the government, when I, 
accepting such opportunities, as you also have been pleased 
kindly to offer to me, plead the cause of my down-trodden 
country (for which both people and government of the 
United States have manifested the liveliest sympathy) ; and 
advocate principles, entirely harmonizing with the official 
declarations of your government ? And what is it T say to 
the people in my public addresses ? I say " the exigency of 
circumstances has raised the question of foreign policy to the 
highest standard of importance, — the question is introduced 
to the Congress, it must therefore be brought to a decision, 
it cannot be passed in silence any more. Your represen- 
tatives in Congress take it for their noblest glory to follow 
the sovereign will of the people ; but to be able to follow it, 
they must know it; yet they cannot know it without the 
people manifesting its opinion in a constitutional way ; since 
they have not been elected upon the question of foreign 
policy, that question being then not yet discussed. I therefore 



TO ALL THE AUTHORITIES. 263 

humbly entreat the sovereign people of the United States to 
consider the matter, and to pronounce its opinion, in such a 
way as it is consistent with law, and with their constitutional 
duties and rights." — May I not be tranquillized in my con- 
science, that in speaking thus T commit no disloyal act, and 
do in no way offend against the high veneration due from me 
to your constituted authorities ? 

If it be so, then the generous manifestation of your sympathy 
I am honoured with in Mobile, is again a highly valuable 
benefit to my cause, because it has such a character of spon- 
taneity, that, here at least, no misrepresentation can charge 
me with having even endeavoured to elicit that high-minded 
manifestation from the metropolis of the State of Alabama. 

So doubly returning my thanks for it, I beg leave to state 
what it is I humbly entreat. 

Firstly, when the struggle which is to decide on the freedom 
of Europe has once broken out, Hungary has resources to 
carry it on : but she wants initial aid, because her finances 
are all grasped by our oppressors. You would not refuse to 
me, a houseless exile, alms and commiseration if I begged 
for myself. Surely then you cannot refuse it for my bleeding 
fatherland, when I beg of you, as individuals, trifling sums, 
such as each can well spare, and the gift of which does not 
entangle your country in any political obligation. 

Whatever may be my personal fate, millions would thank 
and coming generations bless it as a source of happiness to 
them, as once the nineteen million francs, 24,000 muskets, 
and thirty-eight vessels of war which France gave to the cause 
of your own independence, have been a source of happiness 
to you. I rely in that respect upon the republican virtue 
which your immortal Washington has bequeathed to you in 
his memorable address to M. Adet, the first French republican 
minister sent to Washington. " My anxious recollections and 
my best toisJies are irresistibly attracted whensoever in any coun- 
try I see an oppressed nation unfurl the banner of freedom ^ 

So spoke Washington ; and so much for private material 
aid ; to which nothing is required but a little sympathy for an 
unfortunate people, which even Mr. Clemens may feel, what- 



264 THE SOUTH IS PECULIARLY BOUND 

ever his personal aversion for the man who is pleading not his 
own, but his brave people's cause. 

As to the political part of my mission, I humbly claim that 
the United States may pronounce what is or should be the 
law of nations — such as they can recognize consistently with 
the basis upon which their own existence is established, and 
consistently with their own republican principles. 

And what is the principle of such a law of nations, which 
you as republicans can recognize ? Your greatest man, your 
first President, Washington himself, has declared in these 
words : " Every nation has a right to establish that form of 
government under which it conceives it may live most happy, and 
no government ought to interfere with the internal concerns of 
another r 

And according to this everlasting principle, proclaimed by 
your first President, your last President has again proclaimed 
in his last message to the Congress, that " the United States 
are forbidden to remain indifferent to a case, in which the 
strong arm of a foreign power is invoked to repress the spirit 
of freedom in any country T 

It is this declaration that I humbly claim to be sanctioned 
by the sovereign will of the people of the United States, in 
support of that principle which Washington already has pro- 
claimed. And in that respect, I frankly confess I should feel 
highly astonished, if the southern states proved not amongst 
the first, and amongst the most unanimous to join in such a 
declaration. Eecause, of all the great priiiciples guaranteed 
by your constitution, there is none to which the southern 
states attach a greater importance, — there is none which they 
more cherish, — than the principle of self-government ; the 
principle that their own affairs are to be managed by them- 
selves, without any interference from whatever quarter, neither 
from another state, though they are all estates of the same 
galaxy, nor from the central government, though it is an 
emanation of all the states, and represents the south as well 
as the north, and the east and the west ; nor from any foreign 
power, though it be the mightiest on earth. 

Well, gentlemen, this great principle of self-government, is 
precisely the ground upon which I stand. It is for the defence 



TO RESIST INTRUSION. 265 

of this principle that my nation rose against a world in arms ; 
to maintain this principle in the code of "nature and of nature's 
God," the people of Hungary spilt their blood on the battle- 
field and on the scaffold. It is this principle which was 
trodden down in Hungary by the centralization of Austria 
and the interference of Eussia. It is the principle which, if 
Hungary is not restored to her sovereign independence, is 
blotted out for ever from the great statute book of the nations, 
from the common law of mankind. 

Like a pestilential disease, the violation of the principle of 
self-government will spread over all the earth until it is 
destroyed everywhere, in order that despots may sleep in 
security, for they know that this principle is the strongest 
stronghold of freedom, and therefore it is hated by all despots 
and all ambitious men, and by all those who have sold their 
souls to despotism and ambition. 

Gentlemen, you know well that the principle of self- 
government has two great enemies — centralization and 
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE. Hungary is a bleeding victim to 
both. 

You have probably perceived, gentlemen, that the great 
misfortune of Europe is the spirit of centralization encroaching 
upon all municipal institutions and destroying self-government, 
not only by open despotism, but also under the disguise of 
liberty. Fascinated by this dangerous tendency, even repub- 
lican France went on to sweep away all the traces of self- 
government, and this is the reason why all her revolutions 
could not assert liberty for her people, and why she lies now 
prostrate under the feet of a usurper, without glory, without 
merit, without virtue. 

Blind to their interests, the nations abandoned their real 
liberty, the municipal institutions, for a nominal responsibility 
of ministers and for parliamentary omnipotence. Instead of 
clinging to the principle of self-government — the true break- 
water against the encroachments of kings, of ministers, of 
parliaments — they abandoned the principle which enforces the 
real responsibility of ministers and raises the parliament to 
the glorious position of the people's faithful servant ; they 
exchanged the real liberty of self-government for the fasci- 

12 



266 PROGRESS OF CENTRALIZATION. 

nating phantom of parliamentary omnipotence, making the 
elected of the people the masters of the people, which, if it 
is really to be free, cannot have any master but God. The old 
Anglo-Saxon municipal freedom has even in England been 
weakened by this tendency ; parliament has not only fought 
against the prerogative of the crown, but has conquered the 
municipal freedom of the country and of the borough. Green 
Erin sighs painfully under this pressure, and English states- 
men begin to be alarmed. Himgary, my own dear fatherland, 
was the only country in Europe w^hich amidst all adversaries, 
amidst all attacks of foreign encroachment and all induce- 
ments of false new doctrines, remained faithful to the great 
principle of self-government, at which the perjurious dynasty 
of Austria has never ceased to aim deadly blows. To get rid 
of these incessant attacks we availed ourselves of the condition 
of Europe in 1848, and got our old national self-government 
guaranteed in a legal way, with the sanction of our then king, 
by substituting indimdual for collective responsibility of 
ministers ; having experienced that a board of ministers, 
though responsible by law and composed of our own coun- 
trymen, was naturally and necessarily in practice irresponsible. 
When the tyrants of Austria, whom our forefathers had 
elected in an ill-fated hour to be our constitutional kings, saw 
that their designs of centralization were obstructed, they 
forsook their honour, they broke their oath, they tore asunder 
the compact by which they had become kings ; the diadem had 
lost its brightness for them if it was not to be despotic. 
They stirred up robbers and rebels against us : and when this 
failed, then with all the forces of the empire attacked Hungary 
unexpectedly, not thinking to meet with a serious opposition, 
because we had no army, no arms, no ammunition, no money, 
no friends. They therefore declared our constitution and our 
self-government, which we have preserved through the adver- 
sities of ten centuries, at once and for ever abolished. 

But my heart could not bear this sacrilege. I and my 
political friends, we called our people to arms to defend the 
palladium of our national existence, the privilege of self- 
government, and that political, civil, and religious liberty, and 
those democratic institutions, which, upon the glorious basis 



PROGRESS OF INTRUSION. 267 

of self-government, we had succeeded to assert for all the 
peojDle of Hungary. And the people nobly answered my call. 
We struck down the centralizing tyrant to the dust ; we drove 
him and his double -faced eagle out from our country; our 
answer to his impious treachery was the declaration of our 
independence and his forfeiture of the crown. 
Were we right to do so, or not ? 

We were ; and we had accomplished already our laicful 
enterpdze victoriously ; we had taken our competent seat 
amongst the independent nations on earth. But the other 
independent powers, and alas ! even the United States, 
lingered to acknowledge our dearly but gloriously bought 
independence ; and beaten Austria had time to take her refuge 
under the shelter of the other principle, hostile to self- 
government, of the sacrilegious principle of foreign armed 

INTERFERET^CE. 

The Czar of Eussia declared that the example of Hungary 
is dangerous to the interests of absolutism ! He interfered, 
and aided by treason, he succeeded to crush freedom and 
self-government in Hungary and to establish a centralized 
absolutism there, where, through all the ages of the past, the 
rule of despotism never had been established, and the United 
States let him silently accomplish this violation of the common 
law of nations. 

Gentlemen, the law of nations, upon which you have raised 
the lofty hall of your independence, does not exist any more. 
The despots are united and leagued against national self- 
government. They declare it inconsistent with their divine 
(rather Satanic) rights ; and upon this basis all the nations of 
the European Continent are held in fetters ; the government 
of France is become a vanguard to Eussia, St. Petersburg is 
transferred to Paris, and England is forced to arm and to 
prepare for self-defence at home. 

These are the immediate consequences of the downfall of 
the principle of self-government in Hungaiy, by the violence 
of foreign interference. But if this great principle is not 
restored to its full weight by the restoration of Hungary's 
sovereign independence, then you will see yet other conse- 
quences in your own country. Your freedom and prosperity 



268 INTRUSIVENESS AND ABSOLUTISM 

is hated as dangerous to the despots of Europe. If you do 
not believe me, believe at least what the organs of your 
enemies openly avow themselves. Pozzo di Borgo, the 
great Eussian diplomatist, and Hulsemann, the little Austrian 
diplomatist, repeatedly in 1817 and 1823, published that 
despotism is in danger, unless yourselves become a king- 
ridden people. If you study the history of the Hungarian 
struggle, you can also see the way by which the despots will 
carry their design. The secret power of foreign diplomacy 
will foster amongst you the principle of centralization ; and, 
as is always the case, many who are absorbed in some special 
aims of your party politics will be caught by this snare ; 
and when you, gentlemen of the south, oppose with energy 
this tendency, dangerous to your dear principle of self- 
government, the despots of Europe will first foment and 
embitter the quarrel and kindle the fire of domestic dissen- 
sions, and finally they will declare that your example is dan- 
gerous to order. Then foreign armed interference steps 
in for centralization here, as for monarchy in the rest of 
America . 

Indeed, gentlemen, if there is any place on earth where 
this prospect should be considered with attention, with 
peculiar care, it is here in the southern states of this great 
union, because their very existence is based on the great 
principle of self-government. 

But some say there is no danger for the United States, in 
whatever condition be the rest of the world. I am astonished 
to hear that objection in a country, which by a thousand 
ties is connected with and interested in the condition of the 
foreign world. 

It is your own government which prophetically foretold in 
1827, that tlie absolutism of Murope will not he appeased until 
every vestige of human freedom has been obliterated even here. 

And it is upon the ruins of Hungary that the absolutist 
powers are now about to realize this prophecy. 

You are aware of the fact that every former revolution in 
Europe was accompanied by some constitutional concessions, 
promised by the kings to appease the storm, but treacherously 
nullified when the storm passed. Out of this false play 



NECESSARILY INSEPARABLE. 269 

constantly new revolutions arose. It is therefore that 
Eussian interference in Hungary was preceded by a procla- 
mation of the Czar, — wherein he declares " that insurrection 
having spread in every nation with an audacity which has 
gained new force in proportion to the concessions of the 
governments," every concession must be withdrawn; not 
the slightest freedom, no political rights, and no constitu- 
tional aspirations must be left, but everything levelled by 
the equality of passive obedience and absolute servitude ; he 
therefore takes the lead of the allied despots, to crush the 
spirit of liberty on earth. 

It is this impious work, which was begun by the inter- 
ference in Hungary, and goes on spreading in a frightful 
degree, it is this impious work which my people, combined 
with the other oppressed nations, is resolved to oppose. It 
is therefore no partial struggle which we are about to fight ; 
it is a struggle of principles, the issues of which, according 
as we triumph or fall, must be felt everywhere, but nowhere 
more than here in the United States, because no nation on 
earth has more to lose by the all-overwhelming preponder- 
ance of the absolutist principle than the United States. If 
we are triumphant, the progress and development of the 
United States will go on peacefully, till your Eepublicanism 
becomes the ruling principle on earth (God grant it may soon 
become) ; but if we fail, the absolutist powers, triumphant 
over Europe, will and must fall with all their weight upon 
you, precisely because else you would grow to such a might 
as would decide the destinies of the world. And since the abso- 
lutistical powers, with Eussia at their head, desire themselves 
to rule the world, it is natural for her to consider you as 
their most dangerous enemy, which they must try to crush 
or else be crushed sooner or later themselves. The Pozzo di 
Borgos tell you so : the Hulsemanns teU you so : and it were 
indeed strange, if the people of the United States, too proudly 
relying upon their power and their good luck, should indif- 
ferently regard the gathering of danger over their head, and 
hereby invite it to come home to them, forcing them to the 
immense sacrifices of a war, whereas we now aff'ord to them 
an opportunity to prevent that danger, without any entangle- 



270 THE YOUNGER CALHOUN 

ment, and without claiming from you any moral and material 
aid, except such as is not only consistent with, but necessary 
to your interests. 

Allow me to make yet some remarks about the commercial 
interests as connected with the cause I plead. Nothing 
astonishes me more than to see those whose only guiding 
star is commerce, considering its interests only from the 
narrow view of a small momentary profit, and disregarding the 
threatening combination of next coming events. 

Permit me to quote in this respect one part of the public 
letter which Mr. Calhoun, the son of the late great leader of 
the South, the inheritor of his fame, of his principles, and of 
his interests, has recently published. I quote it, because 
him I hope nobody will charge with partiality in respect to 
Hungary. 

Mr. Calhoun says : — 

" There is a universal consideration that should influence 
the government of the United States. The palpable and 
practical agricultural, manufacturing, commercial and navi- 
gating interests, the pecuniary interests of this country, will 
be promoted by the independence of Hungary more than by 
any other event that could occur in Europe. If Hungary 
becomes independent it will be her interest to adopt a liberal 
system of commercial policy. There are fifteen millions of 
people inhabiting what is or what was Hungary, and the 
country between her and the Adriatic. These people have 
not now, and never had, any commerce with the United 
States. Hungarian trade and commerce has been stifled by 
the 'fiscal barriers' of Austria that encircle her. She has 
used but few of American products. Your annual shipments 
of cotton and cotton manufactures to Trieste and all other 
Austrian ports, including the amount sent to Hungary, as 
well as Austria, has never exceeded nine hundred thousand 
dollars per annum. All other merchandize and produce sent 
by you to Austria and Hungary do not exceed one hundred 
thousand dollars a year. Hungary obtains all her foreign 
imports through Austrian ports. The import and transit 
duties levied by Austria are exceedingly onerous, and nearly 
prohibitory as to Hungary of your cotton and cotton goods. 



ON HUNGARIAN COMMERCE. 271 

Hungary independent, and a market is at once opened for 
your cotton, rice, tobacco, and manufactures of immense 
value. That market is now closed to you, and has always 
been, by Austrian restrictions. And can it be doubted that 
besides supplying the fifteen millions of industrious and in- 
telligent people of Hungary {and tliey are, as a ^people, perhaps, 
the most intelligent of any in Europe), the adjacent and neigh- 
bouring countries, will not also be tempted to encourage 
trade with you ? Hungary needs your cotton. She is rich 
in resources — mineral, agricultural, manufacturing, and of 
every kind. She is rich in products, for which you can 
exchange your cotton, rice, &c." Will it, I ask, injuriously 
affect you if the English should compete with you and send 
their manufactures of cotton thither ? Not, I presume, as 
long as the raw material is purchased from America ; but in 
fact, your market will be extended through her. '' If there- 
fore those of our statesmen (says Mr. Calhoun), who can 
only be influenced by the almighty dollar, will cypher up the 
value of this trade — this new market for our products, worth 
perhaps twenty millions of dollars yearly — they may find an 
excuse for incurring even the tremendous and awful risk of 
a war with xiustria, but which there is less danger of than 
there is with Governor Brigham Young, in Utah. They may 
find a substantial interest involved that is worth taking care 
of. Governor Kossuth may be assured it is of more conse- 
quence than sympathy. It is a wonderfully sensitive nerve 
in this country : it controls most of the others. — Sympathy, 
in this case, can take care of itself. It does not require any 
nursing. The interests involved should be attended to. It 
seems to me that this position as to our commerce with 
Hungary cannot be attacked in front, in rear, or on either 
flank. It is by far more forcible and powerful than the ex 
post facto argument in favour of the Mexican war, that it got 
us California and its gold. So far as the general welfare 
of the country is concerned, free trade with independent 
Hungary, and its certain ultimate results, would be more 
invaluable than all the cargoes of gold that may be brought 
from the Pacific coast, if ten times the present amount." 



272 REVERSE OF THE PICTURE, 

That is the opinion of a distinguished American citizen, 
identified chiefly with the interests of the South. 

As to me, I beg permission to sketch in a few lines the re- 
verse of the picture. If we fail in our enterprize to check the 
encroaching progress of absolutism, if the despots of Europe 
succeed to accomplish their plot, the chief part of which for 
Eussia is to get hold of Constantinople, and thus to become 
the controlling power of the Mediterranean sea, what will be 
the immediate result of it in respect to your commerce ? 

No man of sound judgment can entertain the least doubt 
that the first step of Russia will and must be, to exclude 
America from the markets of Europe by the renewal of what 
is called the continental system. Not a single bushel of 
wheat or corn, not a single pound of tobacco, not a single 
bale of cotton, will you be permitted to sell on the continent 
of Europe. The leagued despots must exclude you, because 
you are republicans, and commerce is the convoyer of princi- 
ples ; they must exclude you, because by ruining your com- 
merce they ruin your prosperity, and by ruining this they 
ruin your development, which is dangerous to them. Eussia 
besides must exclude you, because you are the most dan- 
gerous rival to her in the European markets where you have 
abeady beaten her. And it will be the more the interest of 
Eussia to exclude you, because by taking Constantinople, 
she will also become the master of Asiatic and African regions 
where also cotton is raised. 

Well, you say perhaps, though you be excluded from the 
European continent, England still remains to your cotton 
commerce. — Who could guarantee that the English aristocracy 
will not join in the absolutist combination, if the people of 
the United States, by a timely manifestation of its sentiments, 
does not encourage the public opinion of England itself? 
But suppose England does remain a market to your cotton, 
you must not forget that if English manufacture is excluded 
from all the coasts of Europe and of the Mediterranean, she 
will not buy so much cotton from you as now, because she 
will lose so large a market for cotton goods. 

Well, you say neither England nor you will submit to 
such a ruin of your prosperity. Of course not : but then 



THE OTHER SENATOR OF ALABAMA. 273 

you will have a war, connected with immense sacrifices; 
whereas now, you can prevent all that ruin, all those sacri- 
fices, and all that war. Is it not more prudent to prevent a 
fire, than to quench it when your own house is already in 
flames? 

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me draw to a close. I most 
heartily thank you for the honours of this unlooked for recep- 
tion, and for your generous sympathy. I feel happy that 
the interests, political as well as commercial, of the United 
States, are in intimate connexion with the success of the 
struggle of Hungaiy for independence and republican princi- 
ples ; and I bid you a sincere and cordial farewell, recalling 
to your memory, and humbly recommending to your sym- 
pathy that toast, which the more clement Senator of Alabama, 
Colonel King, as President of the United States Senate, gave 
me at the Congressional Banquet, on the 7th of January, in 
these words : — 

" Hungary having proved herself worthy to be free, by the 
virtue and valour of her sons, the law of nations and the 
dictates of justice alike demand that she shall have fair play 
in her struggle for independence." 

It was the honourable Senator of Alabama who gave me 
this toast, expressing his conviction, that to this toast every 
American will cordially respond. His colleague has not 
responded to it, but Mobile has responded to it, and I take, 
with cordial gratitude, my leave of Mobile. 



XXXIX.— KOSSUTH'S DEFENCE AGAINST CERTAIN 
MEAN IMPUTATIONS. 

[Jersey City.'] 

Kossuth was here welcomed with an address by the 
Hon. H. S. Gregory, whose guest he became. Great efforts 
had been made to prejudice the public against him ; notwith- 
standing- which, he was received with enthusiasm. In the 
evening, in his speech at the Presbyterian Church, he alluded 
to the attacks of his opponents as follows : 

Mr. Mayor, and Ladies and Gentlemen, — There have been 

12 § 



274 HEARTLESSNESS AND MEANNESS 

some who, to the great satisfaction of despots, and their civil 
and religious confederates, have moved Heaven and Hell to 
lower my sacred mission to the level of a stage play ; and to 
ridicule the enthusiastic outburst of popular sentiments, 
by defaming its object and its aim. 

That was a sorrowful sight, indeed. To meet opposition 
we must be prepared. There is no truth yet but has been 
opposed: the car which leads truth to triumph must pass 
over martyrs ; that is the doom of humanity. Mankind, 
though advanced in intellectual skill, is pretty much the same 
in heart as it was thousands of years ago — if not worse ; for 
wealth and prosperity do not always improve the heart. It 
is sorrowful to see that not even such a cause as that which 
I plead, can escape from being dragged down insultingly 
into the mud. With the ancient Greeks, the head of an 
unfortunate was held sacred even to the gods. Now-a-days, 
with some, — but let us be thankful! only with some few 
degenerate persons, — even calamity like ours is but an occa- 
sion for a bad joke. Jesus Christ felt thirsty on the cross and 
received vinegar and wormwood to quench the thirst of his 
agony. Oh ye spirits of my country's departed martyrs, 
sadden not your melancholy look at mean insult. The soil 
which you watered by your blood will yet be free, and that is 
enough ! Ye will hear glad tidings about it when I join your 
ranks. 

Eut now, as for myself. When I was in private life, 
I despised to become rich, and sacrificed thousands to the 
public, and often saw my own family embarrassed by domestic 
cares. I refused indemnifications, and lived poor. When 
raised to the highest place in my country, and provided with 
an allowance four times as great as your President's, I still 
lived in my old modest way. I had millions at my disposal, 
yet I went into exile penniless. W^ho now are ye, or what 
like proof have ye given of not adoring the " Almighty 
Dollar," who dare to insult my honour, and call me a sturdy 
beggar, and ask in what brewery I will invest the money I 
get from Americans ? And why ? because I ask a poor alms 
to prepare the approaching struggle of my country ; because 
I cannot and may not tell the public (w^hich is to tell my coun- 



OF SOME FALSE" REPUBLICANS. 275 

try's enemy), how I dispose of the sums which I receive. And 
Americans, pretending to be republicans, pretending to sym- 
pathize with liberty, and wield that light artillery of Freedom, 
— the Press, — try to put on me mean stigmas, in order to 
make it impossible for me to aid the contest of Hungary for 
its own and mankind's liberty. 

Indeed, it is too sad. The consul of ancient Eome, 
Spurius Postumius, was once caught in a snare by the 
Samnites, and was ordered to pass under the yoke with all 
his legions. When he hesitated to submit, a captain cried 
to him : '' Stoop, and lead us to disgrace for our country's 
sake." And so he did. The word of the captain was true : 
our country may claim of us, to submit even to degradations 
for its benefit. But I am sorry that it is in America I had 
to learn, there are in a patriot's life trials still bitterer than 
even that of exile. 

Well : I can bear all this, if it be but fruitful of good for 
my beloved fatherland. But I look up to Almighty God, 
and ask in humility, whether unscrupulous and mean sus- 
picion shall succeed in stopping the flow of that public and 
private aid to me, from republican America and from American 
republicans, without which I cannot organize *and combine 
our forces. 

Mr. Mayor and citizens of Jersey, I indeed apprehend you 
will have much disappointed those who endeavoured by ridi- 
cule to drive our cause out of fashion. You have shown 
them to-day that the cause of liberty can never be out of 
fashion with Americans. I thank you most cordially for it ; 
the more because I know that long before yesterday sym- 
pathy with the cause of liberty has been in fashion with you. 
I am here on the borders of a state noted for its fidelity and 
sacrifices in the struggle for your country's freedom and 
independence : to which the State of New Jersey has, in 
proportion to its population, sacrificed a larger amount of 
patriotic blood and of property, than any other of your sister 
states. I myself have read the acknowledgment of this in 
Washington's own yet unedited hand- writings. And I know 
also that your state has the historical reputation of having 
been a glorious battle-field in the struggle for the freedom 



276 PRAISES OF NEW JERSEY. 

you enjoy. There may be some in this assembly with whom 
the sufferings connected with one's home being a battle-field, 
may be a family tradition yet. But is there a country in 
the world where snch traditions are more largely recorded 
than my own native land is ? Is there a country, on the soil 
of which more battles have been fought — and battles not 
only for ourselves, but for all the Christian, all the civilized 
world ? Oh home of my fathers I thou art the Golgotha of 
Europe. 

I defy all the demoniac skill of tyranny to find out more 
tortures, — moral, political, and material, — than those which 
now weigh down my fatherland. It will not bear them, it 
cannot bear them, but will make a revolution, though all 
the world forsake us. But I ask, is there not private gene- 
rosity enough in America, to give me those funds, through 
which my injured country would have to meet fewer enemies, 
and win its rights with far less bloodshed ; or shall the venom 
of calumny cause you to refuse that, which, without impairing 
your private fortunes or risking your public interests, would 
mightily conduce to our success ? 

Allow me to quote a beautiful but true word which ex- 
Governor Vroom spoke in Trenton last night. He said : 
" Let us help the man ; his principles are those engrafted 
into our Declaration of Independence. We cannot remain 
free, should all Europe become enslaved by absolutism. The 
sun of freedom is but one, on mankind's sky, and when dark- 
ness spreads, it will spread over aU alike." The instinct of 
the people of Hungary understood, that to yield at all to 
unjust violence, was to yield everything ; and to my appeals 
they replied. Cursed be he who yields ! Though unprepared, 
they fought ; our unnamed heroes fought and conquered, — 
until Eussia and treachery came. And though now I am an 
exile, again they will follow me ; I need only to get back to 
them, and bring them something sharper than our nails to 
fight with for fatherland and humanity : then in the high 
face of heaven we will fight out the battle of freedom once 
more. This is my cause, and this my plea. It is there in 
your hearts, written in burning words by God himself, who 
made you generous by bestowing on you freedom. 



277 



XL.— THE BROTHERHOOD OF NATIONS. 

[^Newarlc.'] 

The Rev. Dr. Eddy introduced Kossuth to the citizens of 
Newark, and made an address to him in their name. After 
this, Kossuth replied : — 

Gentlemen, — It was a minister of the gospel who addressed 
me in your name : Let me speak to you as a Christian who 
consider it to be my heartfelt duty, to act, not only in my 
private but also in my public capacity, in conformity with the 
principles of Christianity, as I understand it. 

I have seen the people of the United States almost in every 
climate of your immense territory. I have marked the natural 
influence of geography upon its character. I have seen the 
same principles, the same institutions assuming in their appli- 
cation the modifying influences of local circumstances ; I have 
found the past casting its shadows on the present, in one place 
darker, in the other less ; I have seen man everywhere to be 
man, partaking of all aspirations, which are the bliss as well 
as the fragility of nature in man, — but in one place the bliss 
prevailing more and in the other the fragility. I saw now and 
then small interests of the passing hour, less or more en- 
croaching upon the sacred dominion of universal principles ; 
but so much is true, that wherever I found a people, I found 
a great and generous heart, ready to take that ground which 
by your very national position is pointed out to you as a 
mission. Your position is to be a great nation ; therefore 
your necessity is to act like a great nation ; or, if you do not, 
you will not be great. 

To be numerous, is not to be great. The Chinese are eight 
times more numerous than you, and still China is not great, 
for she has isolated herself from the world. Nor does the 
condition of a nation depend on what she likes to call herself. 
China calls herself " Celestial," and takes you and Europe for 
barbarians. Not what we call ourselves, but how we act, 
proves what we are. Great is that nation which acts greatly. 
^^ And give me leave to say, what an American minister of the 
gospel has said to me : " Nations, by the great God of the 
Universe, are individualized, as well as men. He has given 



278 MAXIMS APPLICABLE ALIKE 

each a mission to fulfil, and He expects every one to bear 
its part in solving the great problem of man's capacity for 
self-government, which is the problem of human destiny ; and 
if any nation fails in this, He will treat it as an unprofitable 
servant, a barren fig-tree, whose own end is to be rooted up 
and burnt." 

Jonah sat under the shadow of his gourd rejoicing, in 
isolated, selfish indifference, caring nothing for the millions of 
the Ninevites at his feet. What w^as the consequence ? God 
prepared a worm to smite the gourd, that it withered. God 
has privileged you, the people of the United States, to repose, 
not under a gourd, but beneath the shadow of a luxuriant 
vine and the outspreading branches of a delicious fig-tree. 
Give him praise and thanks ! But are you, Jonah-like, on 
this account to wrap youi'selves up in the mantle of in- 
sensibility, caring nothing for the nations smarting under 
oppression ? stretching forth no liand for their deliverance, 
not even so much as to protest against a conspiracy of evil 
doers, and give an alms to aid deliverance from them ? Are 
you to hide your national talent in a napkin, or lend it at 
usury ? Eead the Saviour's maxim : 

''Do unto others as ye would that others do unto you T' 
This is the Saviom''s golden rule, applicable to nations as well 
as to individuals. Suppose when the United States were 
struggling for their independence, the Spanish Government 
had interfered to prevent its achievement — sending an 
armament to bombard your cities and murder your inhabitants. 
What would your forefathers have thought, how felt ? Pre- 
cisely as Hungary thought and felt when theEussian bear put 
down his overslaughtering paw upon her. They would have 
invoked high heaven to avenge the interference — and had there 
been a people on the face of the earth to protest against it, 
that people would have shone out, like an eminent star in the 
hemisphere of nations — and to this day you would call it 
blessed. What you would have others do unto you, do so 
likewise unto them. 

And though you met no foreign interference, yet you met 
far more than a protest in your favour ; you met substantial 
aid: thirty-eight vessels of war, nineteen millions of money, 



TO INDIVIDUALS AND TO NATIONS. 279 

24,000 muskets, 4000 soldiers, and the whole political weight 
of France engaged in your cause. I ask not so much, by far 
not so much, for oppressed Europe from you. 

It is a gospel maxim " Be not jpaHaker of oilier men's sins'' 
It is alike applicable to individuals and nations. If you of 
the United States see the great law of humanity outraged by 
another nation, and see it silently, raising no warning voice 
against it, you virtually become a party to the offence ; as you 
do not reprove it, you embolden the offender to add iniquity 
unto iniquity. 

Let not one nation be partaker of another nation's sins. 
When you see the great law of humanity, the law upon which 
your national existence rests, the law enacted in the Decla- 
ration of your Independence, outraged and profaned, will you 
sit quietly by ? If so (excuse me for saying) part of the 
guilt is upon you, and while individuals receive their reward 
in the eternal world, nations are sure to receive it here. There 
is connection of cause and effect in a nation's destiny. 

A nation should not be a mere lake, a glassy expanse, only 
reflecting foreign light around — but a river, carrying its rich 
treasures from the fountain to distant regions of the earth. 

A nation should not be a mere light-house, a stationary 
beacon, erected upon the coast to warn voyagers of their 
danger — but a moving life-boat, carrying treasures of freedom 
to the doors of thousands and millions in their lands. 

I confess, genblemen, that I shared those expectations, 
w^hich the nations of Europe have conceived from America. 
Was I too sanguine in my wishes to hope, that in these ex- 
pectations I shall not fail ? So much I dare say, that I con- 
ceived these expectations not without encouragement on your 
own part. 

With this let me draw to a close. One word often tells 
more than a volume of skilful eloquence. When crossing the 
Alleghany Mountains, in a new country, scarcely yet settled, 
bearing at every step the mark of a new creation, I happened 
to see a new house in ruins. I felt astonished to see a ruin 
in America. There must have been misfortune in that 
house — the hand of God may have stricken him, thought I, 
and inquired from one of the neighbours, " What has become 



280 WARNING AGAINST MATERIALISM. 

of the man?" "Nothing particular," answered he: *' he 
went to the West — he was too comfortable here. American 
pioneers like to be uncomfortable." It was but one word, 
yet worth a volume. It made me more correctly understand 
the character of your people and the mystery of your inner 
prodigious growth, than a big volume of treatises upon the 
spirit of iVmerica might have done. The instinct of indomi- 
table energy, all the boundless power hidden in the word 
^^ go ahead,'" lay open before my eyes. I felt by a glance 
what immense things might be accomplished by that energy, 
to the honour and lasting welfare of all humanity, if only its 
direction be not misled — and I pray to God that he may 
preserve your people from being absorbed in materialism. 
The proud results of egotism vanish in the following gene- 
ration like the fancy of a dream; but the smallest real benefit 
bestowed upon mankind is lasting like eternity. People of 
America ! thy energy is wonderful ; but for thy own sake, 
for thy future's sake, for all humanity's sake, beware ! Oh ! 
beware from measuring good and evil by the arguments of 
materialists. 

I have seen too many sad and bitter hours in my stormy 
life, not to remember every word of true consolation which 
happened to brighten my way. 

It was nearly four months ago, and still I remember it, as 
if it had happened but yesterday, that the delegation, which 
came in December last to New York, to tender me a cordial 
welcome from and to invite me to Newark, called me a bro- 
ther, a brother in the just and righteous appreciation of human 
rights and human destiny ; brother in all the sacred and 
hallowed sentiments of the human heart. These were your 
words, and yesterday the people of Newark proved to me 
that they are your sentiments ; sentiments not like the sudden 
excitement of passion, which cools, but sentiments of brother- 
hood and friendship, lasting, faithful, and true. 

You have greeted me by the dear name of brother. When 
I came, you entitled me to the right to bid you farewell in a 
brother's way. And between brethren, a warm grasp of 
hand, a tender tear in the eye, and the word " remember, ^^ 
tells more than all the skill of oratory could do. And 



BROTHERHOOD. 281 

remember, oli remember, brethren ! that the grasp of my 
hand is my whole people's grasp, the tear which glistens in 
my eyes is their tear. They are suffering as no other people 
— for the world, the oppressed world. They are the emblem 
of struggling liberty, claiming a brother's love and a brother's 
aid from America, who is, happily, the emblem of prosperous 
liberty ! 

Let this word " brother,^' with all the dear ties comprized 
in that word, be the impression I leave upon your hearts. 
Let this word, " brethren, remember I " be my farewell. 



XLI.— THE HISTOEY AND HEAET OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

[ Worcester,* Massachusetts.'] 

Gentlemen, — Just as the Holy Scriptures are the revela- 
tion of religious truth, teaching men how to attain eternal 
bliss, so history is the revelation of eternal wisdom, instruct- 
ing nations how to be happy, and immortal on earth. 
Unaccountable changes may alter on a sudden the condition 
of individuals, but in the life of nations there is always a 
close concatenation of cause and effect — therefore history is 
the book of life, wherein the past assumes the shape of 
future events. 

The history of old Massachusetts is full of instruction to 
those who know how to read unwritten philosophy in written 
facts. Besides, to me it is of deep interest, because of the 
striking resemblances between your country's history and 
that of mine. In fact, from the very time that the " colonial 
system" was adopted by Great Britain, to secure the mono- 
poly [of the American trade, down to Washington's final 
victories ; — from James Otis, pleading with words of flame 
the rights of America before the Supreme Court of Massa- 
chusetts, breathing into the nation that breath of life, out of 
which American Independence was born ; down to the De- 
claration of Independence, first moved by a son of Massa- 
chusetts ; — I often believe I read of Hungary when I read of 

* " Heart of the Commonwealth," is the American title of the 
town of Worcester. 



282 



AMERICA^ GRATEFUL TO FRANCE^ 



Massachusetts. But next, when the kind cheers of your 
generous-hearted people rouse me out of my contemplative 
reveries, and looking around me I see your prosperity, a 
nameless woe comes over my mind, because that very prosperity 
reminds me that I am not at home. The home of my fathers 
— the home of my heart — the, home of my affections and of 
my cares, is in the most striking contrast with the prosperity 
I see here. And whence this striking contrast in the results, 
when there exists such a striking identity in the antecedents? 
Whence this afflicting departure from logical coherence in 
history ? 

It is, because your struggle for independence met the good 
luck, that monarchical France stipulated to aid with its full 
force America struggling for independence, whereas repub- 
lican America delayed even a recognition of Hungary's inde- 
pendence at the crisis when it had been achieved. However ! 
the equality of results may yet come. History will not prove 
false to poor Hungary, w^hile it proves true to all the world. 
I certainly shall never meet the reputation of Franklin, but 
I may yet meet his good luck in a patriotic mission. It is 
not yet too late. My people, like the damsel in the Scriptures, 
is but sleeping, and not dead. Sleep is silent, but restores to 
strength. There is apparent silence also in nature before the 
storm. We are downtrodden, it is true : but was not Washing- 
ton in a dreary retreat with his few brave men, scarcely to 
be called an army, when Franklin drew nigh to success in his 



mission 



P 



My retreat is somewhat longer, to be sure, but then our 
struggle went on from the first on a far greater scale ; and 
again, the success of Franklin was aided by the hatred of 
France against England ; so I am told, and it is true ; but 
I trust that the love of liberty in republican America will 
prove as copious a source of generous inspiration, as hatred 
of Great Britain proved in monarchical France. Or, should 
it be the doom of humanity that even republics like yours are 
more mightily moved by hatred than by love, is there less 
reason for republican America to hate the overwhelming pro- 
gress of absolutism, than there was reason for France to hate 
England's prosperity ? In fact, that prosperity has not been 



MAY BE GENEROUS TO HUNGARY. 283 

lessened, but rather increased by the rending away of the 
United States from the dominion of England ; but the absorp- 
tion of Europe into predominant absolutism, would cripple 
your prosperity, because you are no China, no Japan. 

America cannot remain unaffected by the condition of 
Europe, with which you have a thousand-fold intercourse. A 
passing accident in Liverpool, a fire in Manchester, cannot 
fail to be felt in America — how could then the fire of despotic 
oppression, which threatens to consume all Europe's freedom, 
civilization, and property, fail to affect in its results America ? 
How can it be indifferent to you whether Europe be free or 
enslaved ? — whether there exists a " Law of Nations," or no 
such thing any more exists, being replaced by the caprice of 
an arrogant mortal who is called "Czar?" No! either all 
the instruction of history is vanity, and its warnings but the 
pastime of a mocking-bird, or this indifference is impossible ; 
therefore I may yet meet with Franklin's good luck. 

Eranklin wrote to his friend Charles Thompson, after 
having concluded the treaty of peace — '' If we ever become 
ungrateful to those who have served and befriended us, our 
reputation, and all the strength it is capable of procuring, 
will be lost, and new dangers ensue." 

Perhaps I could say, poor Hungary has well served Chris- 
tendom, has well served the cause of humanity; but indeed 
we are not so happy as to have served your country in par- 
ticular. But you are generous enough to permit our unme- 
rited misfortunes to recommend us to your affections in place 
of good service. It is beautiful to repay a received benefit, 
but to bestow a benefit is divine. It is your good fortune to 
be able to do good to humanity : let it be your glory that you 
are willing to do it. 

Then what will be the tidings I shall have to bear back to 
Europe, in answer to the expectations with which I was 
charged from Turkey, Italy, France, Portugal, and England ? 
Let me hope the answer will be fit to be reanswered by a 
mighty hallelujah, at the shout of which the thrones of tyrants 
will quake ; and when they are fallen, and buried beneath the 
fallen pillars of tyranny, all the Christian world will unite in 
the song of praise — " Glory to God in Heaven, and peace to 



284 SOUNDNESS OF HEAD AND HEART. 

right-willing men on earth, and honour to America, the first- 
born son of Liberty. For no nation has God done so much 
as for her ; for she proved tD be well deserving of it, because 
she was obedient to his Divine Law — She has loved her 
neighbour as herself, and did unto others as, in the hour of 
her need, she desired others to do unto herself." 

Gentlemen, — I know ^vhat weight is due to Massachusetts 
in the councils of the nation ; the history, the character, the 
intelligence, the consistent energy, and the considerate per- 
severance of your country, give me the security that when the 
people of Massachusetts raises its voice and pronounces its 
will — it will carry its aim. 

I have seen this people's will in the manifestation of him 
whom the people's well-deserved confidence has raised to the 
helm of its Executive Government ; I have seen it in the 
sanction of its Senators ; I have seen it in the mighty out- 
burst of popular sentiments, and in the generous testimonials 
of its sympathy, as I moved over this hallowed soil. I hope 
soon to see it in the Legislative Hall of your Representatives, 
and in the Cradle of American Liberty. 

I hope to see it as I see it now here, throbbing with warm, 
sincere, generous, and powerful pulsation, in the very heart 
of your Commonwealth. I know that where the heart is sound 
the whole body is sound — the blood is sound throughout all the 
veins. Never believe those to be right who, bearing but a 
piece of metal in their chests, would persuade you, that to be 
cold is to be wise. Warmth is the vivifying influence of the 
universe, and the warm heart is the source of noble deeds. 
To consider calmly what you have to do is well. You have 
done so. But let me hope that the heart of Massachusetts 
will continue to throb warmly for the cause of liberty, till 
that which you judge to be right is done, with that per- 
sistent energy, which, inherited from the puritan pilgrims of the 
Mayflower, is a principle with the people of Massachusetts. 
Eemember the afflicted, — farewell. 



-^^^. 



285 



XLII.~PANEaYRIC OF MASSACHUSETTS. 
\_S]peech at Faneuil Sail.'] 

Kossuth entered Boston on the 27th April, escorted by 
twenty-nine companies of infantry and four of artillery, in 
the midst of flags and other festive display. He was wel- 
comed by Governor Boutwell at the State House. In the 
afternoon he reviewed the troops on the common, in the 
midst of an immense multitude. The members of the legis' 
lature and of the council came in procession from the State 
House, and joined him in the field. In the evening he was 
entertained at the Eevere House, as the guest of the Legis- 
lative Committee. 

On April 28th he was escorted by the independent cadets 
to the State House, where Governor Boutwell received him 
with a brief but emphatic speech, avowing that Kossuth had 
" imparted important instruction" to the people of the United 
States. The governor then conducted Kossuth to the Senate, 
where he was warmly welcomed by the President General 
Wilson ; and thence again to the House of Eepresentatives, 
where the Speaker, Mr. Banks, addressed him in words of 
high honour, in the name of the representatives. To each 
of these addresses Kossuth replied • but the substance of his 
speeches has scarcely sufficient novelty to present here. 

On the evening of the 29 th of April it was arranged that 
he should speak in Eaneuil Hall. The hall filled long before 
his arrival, and an incident occurred which deserves record. 
The crowd amused itself by calling on persons present for 
speeches : among others Senator Myron Laurence was called 
for, who, after first refusing, stept on the platform and de- 
clared that he had some sins to confess. He had been guilty 
of thinking Kossuth to be what is called " a humbug ;" but 
he had seen him now, and thought differently. He had seen 
the modest, truthful bearing of the man, — that he had no 
tricks of the orator, but spoke straightforward. Mr. Laurence 
now believed him to be sincere and honest, and prayed 
Almighty God to grant him a glorious success. This frank 
and manly acknowledgment was received with unanimous and 
hearty applause. 



286 COMPREHENSIVE SPEECH 

At eight o'clock Governor Bout well, liis council, and the 
committee of reception, as also the vice-presidents and secre- 
taries, received Kossuth in Faneuil Hall.* When applause 
had ceased, the Governor addressed Kossuth as follows : — 

Gentlemen, — "We have come from the exciting and ma- 
jestic scenes of the reception which the people of Massa- 
chusetts have given to the exiled son of an oppressed and 
distant land, that on this holy spot, associated in our minds 
with the eloquence, the patriotism, the virtue of the revolu- 
tion, we may listen to his sad story of the past and contem- 
plate his plans and hopes for the future. And shall these asso- 
ciations which belong to us, and this sad story w^iich belongs 
to humanity, fail to inspire our souls and instruct our minds 
in the cause of freedom? Europe is not like a distant 
ocean, whose agitations and storms give no impulse to the 
wave that gently touches our shore. The introduction of 
steam power and the development of commercial energy are 
blending and assimilating our civilities and institutions. 
Europe is nearer to us in time than the extreme parts of this 
country are to each other. As all of us are interested in the 
prevalence of the principles of justice among our fellow men, 
80, as a nation, we are interested in the prevalence of the 
principles of justice among the nations and states of Europe. 

Never before was the American mind so intelligently directed 
to European affairs. We have not sought, nor shall we seek, 
the control of those affairs. But we may scan and judge their 
character and prepare ourselves for the exigencies of national 
existence to which we may be called. I do not hesitate to pro- 
nounce the opinion that the policy of Eu7'ope will have a visible 
effect upon the character, power, aud destiny of the American 
Republic. That policy as indicated by Eussia and Austria, 
is the work of centralization, consolidation and absolutism. 
American policy is the antagonist of this. 

We are pledged to liberty and the sovereignty of States. 
Shall a contest between our own principles and those 
of our enemies awaken no emotions in us ? We believe that 
government should exist for the advantage of the individual 

* Faneuil Hall is entitled by the Americans " the cradle of Ame- 
rican Liberty. 



or GOVERNOR BOUTWELL. 287 

members of the body politic, and not for the use of those 
who, by birth, fortune, or personal energy, may have risen to 
positions of power. We recognize the right of each nation 
to establish its own institutions and regulate its own affairs. 
Our revolution rests upon this right, and otherwise is entirely 
indefensible. The policy of this nation, as well foreign as 
domestic, should be controlled by American principles, that 
the world may know we have faith in the government we 
have established. While we cannot adopt the cause of any 
other people, or make the quarrels of European nations our 
own, it is our duty to guard the principles peculiar to America, 
as well as those entertained by us in common with the civi- 
lized world. 

One principle, which should be universal in States as among 
individual men is, that each should use his own in such a way 
as not to injure that which belongs to another. Russia vio- 
lated this p'incijple wlien slie interfered in the affairs of Hungary^ 
and thus weakened the obligations of other States to respect 
the sovereignty of the Eussian Empire. 

The independent existence of the continental States of 
Europe, is of twofold importance to America. Important 
politically, important commercially. 

As independent States they deprive Eussia, the central and 
absorbing power of Europe, of the opportunity on the Medi- 
terranean to interfere in the politics and civilities of this 
Continent. Eussia and the United States are as unlike as 
any two nations which ever existed . If Russia obtains control 
of Europe by the power of arms^ and the United States shall 
retain this Continent by the poioer of its principles^ war will be 
inevitable. As inevitable as it was in former days that war 
should arise between Carthage and Eome,^ — Carthage, which 
sought to extend her power by commerce, and Eome, which 
sought to govern the world by the sword. The independence 
of the States of Europe is then the best security for the peace 
of the world. If these States exist, it must be upon one con- 
dition only — that each State is permitted to regulate its own 
affairs. If the voice of the United States and Great Britain 
is silent, will Eussia allow these States to exist upon this 
principle? — Has she not already partitioned Poland — menaced 



288 AMERICA IS INVOLVED IN EUROPE. 

Turkey — divided with the Sultan the sovereignty of Wallachia 
— infused new energy into the despotic councils of Austria — 
and finally aided her in an unholy crusade against the liberties 
of Hungary ? Have we not then an interest in the affairs of 
Europe ? And if we have an interest, ought we not to use 
the rights of an independent State for its protection? 

The second consideration is commercial. 

Centralization, absolutism, destroys commerce. The policy 
of Russia diminishes production and limits markets. When- 
ever she adds a new State to her dominions the commerce of 
the world is diminished. Great Britain and the United States, 
which possess three-fourths of the commercial marine of the 
globe, are interested to prevent it. Our commerce at this 
moment with despotic States is of very little importance, and 
its history shows that in every age it has flourished in pro- 
portion to the freedom of the people. 

These, gentlemen, are poor words and barren thoughts upon 
the great European question of the time. A question which 
America in her own name, and for herself, must meet at some 
future day, if now she shall fail to meet it firmly, upon well 
settled principles of national law, for the protection and as- 
sistance of other States. 

I have done. The exiled patriot shall speak for himself. 
Not for himself only, nor for the land and people of Hungary 
he loves so well, but for Europe, and America even, he speaks. 
Before you he pleads your own cause. It is to a just tribunal 
I present a noble advocate. And to him it shall be a bright 
spot in the dreary waste of the exile's life, that to-night he 
pleads the cause of Hungary and humanity, where once Otis 
and Adams, and Hancock and Quincy, pleaded the cause of 
America and liberty. 

I present to you Governor Kossuth of Hungaiy. 

In reply to Governor Boutwell, when the tumultuous ap- 
plause had subsided, Kossuth spoke, in substance as follows: — 

He apologized for profaning Shakespeare's language in 
Faneuil Hall, the cradle of American liberty. Yet he ven- 
tured to criticize that very phrase ; for liberty ought not to 
be American^ but human ; else it is no longer a right, but 
a privilege ; and privilege can nowhere be permanent. The 



PRIVILEGE NOT PRINCIPLE. 289 

nature of a privilege (said he) is exclusiveness, that of a prin- 
ciple is communicative. Liberty is a principle : its community 
is its security ; exclusiveness is its doom. 

What is aristocracy ? It is exclusive liberty ; it is privi- 
lege; and aristocracy is doomed, because it is contrary to the 
destiny of men. As aristocracy should vanish within each 
nation, so should no nation be an aristocrat among nations. 
Until that ceases, liberty will nowhere be lasting on earth. 
It is equally fatal to individuals as to nations, to believe 
themselves beyond the reach of vicissitudes. By this proud 
reliance, and the isolation resulting therefrom, more victims 
have fallen than by immediate adversities. You have grown 
prodigiously by your freedom of seventy-five years ; but what 
is seventy-five years as a charter of immortality ? No, no, 
my humble tongue teUs the records of eternal truth. A pri- 
vilege never can be lasting. Liberty restricted to one nation 
never can be sure. You may say, " We are the prophets of 
God ;" but you shall not say, " God is only our God." The 
Jews said so, and their pride, old Jerusalem, lies in the dust. 
Our Saviour taught all humanity to say, ''Our Father in 
heaven," and his Jerusalem is lasting to the end of days. 

" There is a community in mankind's destiny" — that was 
the greeting which I read on the arch of welcome on the 
Capitol Hill of Massachusetts. I pray to God, the Eepublic 
of America would weigh the eternal truth of those words, 
and act accordingly ; liberty in America would then be sure 
to the end of time ; but if you say, '' American Liberty," and 
take that grammar for your policy, I dare to say the time 
will yet come when humanity will have to mourn a new 
proof of the ancient truth, that without community national 
freedom is never sure. 

However, the cradle of American Liberty is not only famous 
from the reputation of having been always on the lists of the 
most powerful eloquence; it is still more conspicuous for 
having seen that eloquence attended by practical success. To 
understand the mystery of this rare circumstance one must 
see the people of New England, and especially the people of 
Massachusetts. 

In what I have seen of New England there are two things, the 

13 



290 ' TWO THINGS IN NEW ENGLAND. 

evidence of which, strikes the observer at every step — pros- 
perity and intelligence. I have seen thousands assembled, 
following the noble impulses of a generous heart : almost the 
entire population of every town, of every village where I 
passed, gathered around me, throwing flowers of consolation 
on my path. I have seen not a single man bearing that mark 
of poverty upon himself which in old Europe strikes the eye 
sadly at eveiy step. I have seen no ragged poor — I have seen 
not a single house bearing the appearance of desolated poverty. 
The cheerfulness of a comfortable condition, the result of 
industry, spreads over the land. One sees at a glance that 
the people work assiduously, not with the depressing thought 
just to get through the cares of a miserable life from day to 
day by hard toil, but they work with the cheerful con- 
sciousness of substantial happiness. And the second thing 
which I could not fail to remark, is the stamp of intelligence 
impressed upon the very eyes and outward appearance of the 
people at large. I and my companions have seen them in the 
factories, in the workshops, in their houses, and in the streets^ 
and could not fail a thousand times to think " how intelligent 
this people looks." It is to such a people that the orators of 
Faneuil Hall had to speak, and therein is the mystery of 
success. They were not wiser than the public spirit of their 
audience, but they were the eloquent interpreters of the 
people's enlightened instinct. 

No man can force the harp of his o^vn individuality into 
the people's heart, but every man may play upon the^ chords 
of his people's heart, who draws his inspiration from the peo- 
ple's instinct. Well, I thank God for having seen the public 
spirit of the people of Massachusetts, bestowing its attention 
on the cause I plead, and pronouncing its verdict. In respect 
to the question of national intervention, his Excellency the 
high-minded Governor of Massachusetts wrote a memorable 
address to the Legislature ; the Joint Committee of the Legis- 
lative Assembly, after a careful and candid consideration of 
the subject, not only concurred in the views of the Executive 
government, but elucidated them in a report, the irrefutable 
logic and elevated statesmanship of which will for ever endear 
the name of Hazewell to oppressed nations ; and the Senate 



VAST IMPORTANCE OF FOREIGN POLICY. 291 

of Massachusetts adopted the resolutions proposed by the 
Legislative Committee. After such remarkable and unsolicited 
manifestations of conviction, there cannot be the slightest 
doubt that all these Executive and Legislative proceedings not 
only met the full approbation of the people of Massachusetts, 
but were the solemn interpretation of public opinion. A 
spontaneous outburst of popular sentiment tells often more 
in a single word than all the skill of elaborate eloquence could : 
as when, amidst the thundering cheers of a countless multi- 
tude, a man in Worcester greeted me with the shout : " We 
worship not the man, hut we worship the principle, ^^ It was a 
word, like those words of flame spoken in Paneuil Hall, out of 
which liberty in America was born. That word reveals the 
spirit, which, applying eternal truth to present exigencies, 
moves through the people's heart — that word is teeming with 
the destinies of America. 

Give me leave to mention, that having had an opportunity 
to converse with leading men of the great parties, which are 
on the eve of an animated contest for the Presidency — 
I availed myself of that opportunity, to be informed of the 
principal issues, in case the one or the other party carries 
the prize ; and having got the information thereof, I could 
not forbear to exclaim — " All these questions together cannot 
outweigh the all -overruling importance of foreign policy.^' 
It is there, in the question of foreign policy, that the heart 
of the immediate future throbs. Security and danger, pros- 
perity and stagnation, peace and war, tranquillity and 
embarrassment — 3'es, life and death, will be weighed in the 
scale of Foreign Policy. It is evident things are come to 
the point where they were in ancient Eome, when old Cato 
never spoke privately or publicly about whatever topic, with- 
out closing his speech with these words : " However^ r,iy 
opinion is, that Carthage riiiist he destroyed'''' — thus advertising 
his countrymen, that there was one question outweighing in 
importance all other questions, from which public attention 
should never for a moment be withdrawn. 

Such, in my opinion, is the condition of the world now. 
Carthage and Eome had no place on earth together. Eepub- 
lican America and all-overwhelming Eussian absolutism can- 



292 DOUBLE AND CONTRADICTORY 

not mucli longer subsist together on earth. Eussia active — 
America passive — there is an immense clanger in that fact ; 
it is like the avalanche in the Alps, which the noise of a bird's 
wing may move and thrust down with irresistible force, 
growing every moment. I cannot but believe it were highly 
time to do as old Cato did, and finish every speech with these 
words — '' However, the Icnc of nations should be maintained, 
and absolutism not permitted to become omnipotent''' 

It is however a consolation to me to know, that the chief 
difficulty with which I have to contend, — viz. the overpower- 
ing influence of domestic questions with you, — is neither 
lasting, nor in any way an argument against the justice of 
our cause. 

Another difficulty which I encounter is rather curious. 
Many a man has told me that if I had only not fallen into 
the hands of abolitionists and free soilers, they would have 
supported me ; and, had I landed somewhere in the South, 
instead of at New York, I should have met quite different 
things from that quarter ; but being supported by the free- 
soilers, of course I must be opposed by the South. On the 
other side, I received a letter, from which I beg leave to quote 
a few lines : — 

'' You are silent on the subject of slavery. Surrounded as 
you have been by slaveholders ever since you put your foot on 
English soil, if not during your whole voyage from Constan- 
tinople, and ever since you have been in this country sur- 
rounded by them, whose threats, promises, and flattery made 
the stoutest hearts succumb, your position has put me in 
mind of a scene described by the apostle of Jesus Christ, 
when the devil took him up into a high mountain," &c. 

Now, gentlemen, thus being charged from one side with 
being in the hands of abolitionists, and from the other side 
with being in the hands of slaveholders, I indeed am at a 
loss what course to take, if these very contradictory charges 
were not giving me the satisfaction to feel that I stand just 
where it is my duty to stand- — on a truly American ground. 

And oh, have I not enough upon these poor shoulders, 
that I am desired yet to take up additional cares? If 
the cause I plead be just, if it is worthy of your sympathy, 



IMPUTATIONS ON KOSSUTH. 293 

and at the same time consistent with the impartial considera- 
tion of your own moral and material interests, (which a 
patriot never should disregard, not even out of philanthropy,) 
then why not weigh that cause in the scale of its own value, 
and not in a foreign one ? Have I not difficulties enough 
before me here, that I am desired to increase them with my 
own hands ? — Father Matthew goes on preaching temperance, 
and he may be opposed or supported on his own ground ; 
but who ever thought of opposing him, because he takes not 
into his hands to preach fortitude or charity ? And indeed, 
to oppose or to abandon the cause I plead, only because I mix 
not with the agitation of an interior question, is a greater 
injustice yet, because to discuss the question of foreign 
policy I have a right, — my nation is an object of that policy ; 
we are interested in it ; — but to mix with interior party move- 
ments I have no right, not being a citizen of the United 
States. 

[After this Kossuth proceeded to urge, as in former 
speeches, that the interests of American commerce were not 
opposed to, but were identified with, the cause of Hungary 
and of European Liberty. He also adduced new considera- 
tions, which are afterwards treated more fully in his speech at 
Buffalo.] 



XLHL— SELF-aOYEENMENT OF HUNaAUY. 

[JBanquet in Faneuil SallJ] 

On April 30th, Kossuth was entertained at a Grand 
Banquet, by the Governor and Council, and the Members of 
the two Houses. Eight hundred and seventy tickets besides 
were issued, and were all taken up. The Honourable Henry 
Wilson, President of the Senate, was President for the even- 
ing. It is not possible here to print all the speeches, but it 
may be noted that Governor Boutwell, in reply to a toast, 
elicited affirmative replies from the guests to many questions 
directed to show the necessity of American armed interference 
on the side of Hungary. Also, the venerable Josiah Quincy, 



294 TOASTS AND SPEECHES. 

aged eighty, in reply to a toast, declared that liberty remained 
only in the United States and Great Britain, and that in 
Great Britain herself the spirit of freedom is weakened. *' Let 
Great Britain fail and be beaten down, and all the navies 
of Europe will be bristling against the United States." 
Finally, President Wilson, introducing the guest of the 
evening, said : — 

" Gentlemen, allow me to present to you the illustrious 
guest of Massachusetts, Governor Kossuth. He has won our 
admiration as a man by the advocacy of the cause of his 
country, and he has won all our hearts by the purity of his 
principles." 

Kossuth, in reply, noticed that the toast with which he had 
been hongured was almost entirely personal; and while dis- 
claiming merit, he was nevertheless induced to advert to 
personal incidents, (now generally known,) as, — how he pub- 
lished in MS. the Hungarian debates, — was unlawfully 
imprisoned for it, and learned English in prison by means of 
Shakespeare ; how, when he was necessarily released, the 
government imposed an unlawful censorship on his journal, 
which journal nevertheless became the basis of the great and 
extensive reforms which received their completion in the laws 
of March and April, 1848. After this he proceeded as 
follows : — 

Gentlemen, allow me to say a few words on the ancient 
institutions of Hungary. I have often heard it said that 
the people of Europe are incapable of self-government. Let 
me speak of the people of Hungary, to show whether they are 
capable of self-government or not. In thirty-six years, with 
God's help, and through your generous aid, the free people 
of Hungary will celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the 
establishment of their home — the millennium of Hungary in 
Europe. Yes, gentlemen, may I hope that celebration will 
take place under the blessings of liberty in the year 1889 ? 

It is a long period — one thousand years — and Oh 1 how it 
has teemed with adversities to my countrymen ! and yet 
through this long time, amid all adversities there was no period 
when the people of Hungary did not resist despotism. Our 
boast is, that through the vicissitudes of a thousand years, 



NOBLEMEN MEANT SOLDIERS. 295 

there was not a moment when the popular will and the legal 
authorities had sanctioned the rule of absolutism. And, 
gentlemen, what other people, for 1000 years, has not con- 
sented to be ruled by despotism ? Even in the nineteenth 
century T am glad to look back to the wisdom of our fathers 
through a thousand years — who laid down for Hungarian 
institutions a basis which for all eternity must remain true. 
This basis was upon that Latin proverb nil de nobis, sine nobis 
— ''nothing about us without us." That was, to claim that 
every man should have a full share in the sovereignty of the 
people and a full share in the rights belonging to his nation. 
In other times a theory was got up to convince the people 
that they might have a share in legislation just so far as to 
control that legislation, but denying the right of the people 
to control the executive power. The Hungarian people never 
adopted that theory. They ever claimed a full share in the 
executive as well as in the legislative and judicial power. Out 
of this idea of government rose the municipal system of Hun- 
gary. In respect to Hungarian aristocracy, you must not 
consider it in the same light as the aristocracy of England. 
The word nobleman in Hungary originally was equivalent to 
soldier. Every man who defended his country was a noble- 
man, and every man who had a vote was called to defend his 
country, I believe the duty of defending a man's country, 
and also political right, should be common. 

After our people had conquered a home, the leaders took 
the lion's share, of course. But it should be considered that 
those who had the largest share of the property, were com- 
pelled to furnish soldiers according to the extent of their 
possessions. Therefore such men gave a part of their land 
to people to cultivate, and desired aid of them whenever the 
necessity for war came. So all who defended their country 
were considered noblemen. Hungary was divided into fifty-two 
counties, but not counties like yours — some of them were so 
populous as to be comparable to your States, containing 
perhaps half a million or more of people, and those who 
became the aristocracy in some of these counties amounted 
to 35,OOjO. In every county was a fortress, and whenever de- 
fence became necessary, the rich men went into these fortresses 



296 HUNGARIAN LOCAL EXECUTIVE^ 

under their own banner, and the others went under the King's 
colours, and were commanded by the sheriff of the county, 
who might be here Governor — at least who was the chief of 
the Executive. Certain of the cities were raised to consti- 
tutional rights. A smaller city, if surrounded by fortifications 
or if an important post, was represented in the Diet, whilst 
larger places, if not posts of importance for national defence, 
were represented only by the County Delegates. Every place 
that had the elements of defence had political rights. So it 
came to pass that the aristocracy were not a few men, but 
half a million. I had contended to beat down this barrier of 
aristocracy. Before the Eevolution, in municipal governments 
only the nobility had a share — they only were the men who 
could vote : but the change was easy. The frame of self- 
government was ready. We had only to say, the people instead 
of the nobility had the right to vote ; and so, in one day, we 
buried aristocracy, never to rise again. Each county elected 
its Eepresentatives to the Diet, and had the right of inter- 
course with other counties by means of letters on all matters 
of importance to these counties ; and therefore our fifty-two 
primary councils were normal schools of public spirit. We 
elected our Judicatory and Executive, and the government 
had not a right to send instructions or orders to our Executive ; 
and if an order came which we considered to be inconsistent 
with our constitutional rights, it was not sent to the Executive, 
but to the Council ; and therefore the arbitrary orders of the 
Government could not be executed, because they came not 
into the hands of the Executive. Thus were our Councils 
barriers against oppression. 

When the French took Saragossa, it was not enough to 
take the city — they had to take every house. So also we 
went on, and though some counties might accept the arbitrary 
orders of the government, some resisted ; and, by discussing 
in their letters to the other counties the points of right, en- 
lightened them ; and it was seen that when the last house in 
Saragossa had been beaten down, the first stood erect again. 
In consequence of the democratic nature of our institutions, 
our Councils were our Grand Juries. Eut aftei having 
elected our Judges, we chose several men in every county 



AND COUNTY INSTITUTIONS. 297 

meeting, of no public office, but conspicuous for their in- 
tegrity and knowledge of the law, to assist the Judges in 
their administration. 

Believe me, these institutions had a sound basis, fit to 
protect a nation against an arbitrary government which was 
aiming at centralization and oppression. Now, these 
counties having contended against the Austrian Government, 
it did everything to destroy them. The great field was 
opened in the Diet of 1847. Having been elected by the 
county of Pest, I had the honour to lead the party devoted 
to national rights and opposed to centralization and in defence 
of municipal authority. It was my intention to make it im- 
possible that the Government should in future encroach upon 
the liberties of the people. We had the misfortune in Hun- 
gary to be governed by a Constitutional King, who at the 
same time was the absolute monarch of another realm — by 
birth and interests attached to absolutism and opposed to 
constitutional government. It was difficult to be an absolute 
monarch and behave as King of Hungary. There is on 
record a speech of mine, spoken in the Hungarian Diet, about 
the inconsistency of these two attributes in one man — that 
either Austria must become constitutional, or Hungary abso- 
lutistical. That speech virtually made the devolution of 1848 
at Vienna. After this Eevolution, I was sent to Vienna to 
ask that our laws be established, releasing the people from 
feudal rights and demanding a constitutional ministry. 
Then it was that a circumstance occurred, to which I heard 
an allusion in the toast offered to me. I was told the King 
would grant our request ; only, there was agitation in Vienna, 
and it would look as if the King were yielding to pressure. 
If the people would be quiet, the King would sanction our 
laws. Then I said, that if the King would give his sanction 
to our legislative measures, peace would be made for the 
House of Austria in twenty -four hours. But when that con- 
sent was given in one Chamber, in another Chamber that 
wicked woman, Sophia, the mother of the present Emperor, 
who calls himself King of Hungary — no, he does not call 
himself King of Hungary, for he thinks the national existence 
of Hungary is blotted out — plotted how to ruin my people 

13 § 



298 THE ARCHDUKE STEPHEN. 

and destroy that sanction which was nothing but a necessary 
means to secure a just cause. Next came the Hungarian 
ministry — and, strange to say, I saw myself placed close to 
the throne. 

When in Vienna, after tlte sanction was granted, steps were 
taken to retract it ; I went to the Arch-Duke Stephen, the 
Palatine of Hungary, the first constitutional authority of 
Hungary, — the elective viceroy, and told him he ought to 
return to Plungary if he wished to preserve his influence. 

He answered that he could not return to Hungary, for if 
the King did not sanction our laws — he (the Arch-Duke 
Stephen) might be proclaimed King instead of the Emperor 
of Austria, and he would never dethrone his cousin. 

I answered, that he spoke like an honest man, but perhaps 
the time would come when he would find an empty seat on 
that throne, and he had better take it, for 1 could assure him, 
if he did not, no other man ever w^ould with the consent of 
the people. AY hen five months later, in Hungary, we met for 
the last time, he called me to his house on a stormy night, 
and desired of me to know what would be the issue of mat- 
ters. I answ^ered : I can see no issue for you, but the crown 
or else the scaff'old, and then for the people a Kepublic. But 
even from this alternative I will relieve you : for you the 
crown, for me scaffold, if the Hungarian independence is 
not achieved. — I make no hesitation here to confess that such 
was the embarrassed state of Hungarian afi'airs that I should 
have felt satisfied for him to have accepted the crown. Ee- 
member that your fathers did not design at first to sever the 
ties which bound the colonies to England, but circumstances 
forced the issue. So it was with us. We asked at first only 
Democratic institutions, but when it w^as possible we were 
glad to throw away our Kings. 

The Arch-Duke did not accept, but was rather a traitor to 
his country. Such is the connection of tyrants with each 
other, they desire not to prevent others from oppressing. He 
is now an exile like myself. If he had accepted the proposal, 
no doubt the independence of Hungary would have been 
recognized by even Russia, especially if he had formed a 
family alliance with despotism, and then for centuries the 



HUNGARY OF THE FUTURE. 299 

establishment of a Kepublic would have been impossible : 
whereas, now, as sure as there is a God in Heaven, no King 
will ever rule Hungary ; but it must be one of those Eepub- 
lics, wherein Eepublicanism is not a mere romance but a reality, 
founded upon the basis of municipal authorities, to which the 
people are attached. We could never have such a movement 
as disgraced France in December. 

Excuse me, gentlemen, if I abuse your kindness. I am 
anxious to make known my ideas upon the future organiza- 
tion of my country. The organization which alone we could 
propose, is one founded upon the sovereignty of the people, 
not only in a legislative capacity — for it is not enough that 
we know that sovereignty by casting a vote once in three or 
four years : we must feel it every day, everywhere. The sove- 
reignty of the people asserts, that men have certain rights, 
not depending on any power, but natural rights. I mean 
such as religious liberty — free thought — a free press, and the 
right of every family to regulate its own affairs : but not 
only every family ; also every town, city, and county. Our 
sovereignty shall be such, that the higher government will 
have no power to interfere in the domestic concerns of any 
town, city, or county. These are the principles upon which 
our Government will be founded — not only sovereignty in 
Legislation, but a particidar share in the executive Govern- 
ment. — Judge whether such a people is worthy to meet the 
sympathy of Eepublicans Hke you, who have shown to the 
world that a nation may be powerful without centralization. 
Believe me, there is harmony in our ancient principles and 
' your recent ones. Judge whether my people is capable of 
self-government. 

- The venerable gentleman (Josiah Quincy) spoke a word 
about England. I believe the Anglo-Saxon race must have 
a high destiny in the history of mankind. It is the only 
race, the younger brother of which is free while the elder 
brother has also some freedom. You, gentlemen, acknow- 
ledge that from the mother country you obtained certain of 
your principles of liberty — free thought and speech, a free 
press, &c. — and I am sure, gentlemen, the English people are 
proud of liberty. Called to pronounce against the league of 



300 CERTAIN EFFECTS OF AN 

despots, if tbe republican United States and constitutional 
England were in concord, what would be the conse- 
quence ? 

I answer, it would be exactly as when the South American 
Republic was threatened — as when Eussia forbade American 
vessels to approach within a hundred miles of its American 
shores. I have often met in the United States an objection 
against an alliance with England ; but it is chiefly the Irish 
who are opposed to being on good terms with England. In 
respect to the Irish, if I could contribute to the future unity 
in action of the United States and England, I should more 
aid the Irish than by all exclamations against one or other. 
If the United States and England were in union, the conti- 
nent of Europe would be republican. Then, though England 
remained monarchical, Ireland would be freer than now. If 
I were an Irishman, I would not have raised the standard of 
Repeal, which off'ended the people of England, but the 
standard of municipal self-government against parliamentary 
omnipotence — not as an Irish question, but as a common 
question to all — and in this movement the people of England 
and Scotland would have joined ; and now there would have 
been a Parliament in England, in Ireland, and Scotland. 
Such is the geographical position of Great Britain, that its 
countries should be, not one, but united ; each with its own 
Parliament, but still one Parliament for all. If I could con- 
tribute to get England to oppose the encroachments of abso- 
lutism, I should be doing more to aid Ireland, in aiding 
freedom, than if I so acted as to induce England to look 
indifferently at the approach of absolutism. I was glad to 
hear the words of that venerable gentleman (Josiah Quincy). 
They brought to my mind the words of John Adams, first 
minister of the United States to England. When he ad- 
dressed the King, he said: — '•^ He would he Jiapjpy could lie 
restore entire esteem, confidence, and affection between the 

United States and England,'' and King George III replied : 
*^ / was the last to conform to the separation, and I am the 
fi.rst to meet the friendship of the United States. Let the com- 
munities of language, religion, and blood have their full and 
natural effects 



ANGLO-AMERICAN ALLIANCE. 801 

Let this precedent, belonging to the intelligence not of 
to-day only — let these words become now considered of 
particular interest to both countries, and it would be of 
the greatest benefit to mankind. There is nothing more 
necessary to secure the freedom of Europe, than consent 
to act together, on the part of the United States and 
England. 

It is not necessary to say how far they will go, but only 
necessary to say they will do as much as their interests allow, 
and what may be necessary that the law of nations should be 
protected and not abandoned. 

When I was in England nothing gave me more delight than 
to hear delegations addressing me, mention your Washington, 
and confess themselves sorry that he had to manifest his 
greatness in contending against England -, but they were 
more proud to see the greatness of such a man, than not to 
have been opposed by him. They entrusted me to bring 
word to the United States, that they wished to be united to 
you for the benefit of all Humanity. 

I was charged particularly by one hundred men connected 
with commerce at Manchester — the least wealthy of whom 
was worth, as they express it in England, £10,000 a year — 
these gentlemen told me it would be a great result of my 
mission in the United States, if T could convince Americans 
that Englishmen thought all differences had vanished ; and 
they desired to go hand in hand with the people of the United 
States, as regards foreign policy. Now, I have observed in 
New England less objection to the policy of an alliance with 
England than in many other parts of the United States, and 
I take it for an evidence of the intelligence and liberality 
of the people. 

I know, gentlemen, you have been pleased to honour me, not 
for myself (for the people of Massachusetts are not man- 
worshippers, but reverence principles only) — therefore I 
cannot better express my thanks than to pledge my word, 
relying, as on another occasion of deep interest I said, upon the 
justice of our cause, the blessing of God, iron wills, stout arms, 
and good swords — and upon your generous sympathy, to do 
all in my power, with my people, for my country and for 



302 JUDGE HOAR ON KOSSUTH. 

humanity; for which indeed in my heart, though it is some- 
what old, there is yet warmth. 

After many other toasts, President Wilson called on Judge 
Hoar to speak. The reply of the Judge had several striking 
sentences. He closed by saying to Kossuth : 

" It is because you. Sir, have learned the truth that Peace 
is the first interest of no people, — tJiat there are other things 
more sacred than human life, — that icitliout Justice and Free- 
dom life is only a mockery, and peace a delusion and a burden, 
— it is because, when tyranny had terminated every duty of a 
subject, you too * have dared to become the most notorious 
REBEL of our time, therefore does Massachusetts welcome you 
to the home of Hancock and of Adams, and the majestic spirit 
of Washington sheds its benediction upon the scene." 



XLIY.— KXTSSIA THE ANTAGONIST OF THE U. S. 

\_Salem, May 6.] 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — When four years ago, the 
tidings of our struggle made the scarcely before known name 
of Hungary familiar to you, sympathy for a nobly defended 
noble cause moved your hearts to rejoice at our victories, to 
feel anxiety about our dangers. Yet, so long as our struggle 
w^as but a domestic contest, a resistance against oppression by 
a perjurious king, you had no reason to think that the sym- 
pathy you felt for us, being a generous manifestation of the 
affections of free men, was at the same time an instinctive 
presentiment of a policy, which you in your national capacity 
will be called upon by circumstances, not only to consider, 
but, as I firmly believe, also to adopt. 

You were far from anticipating that the issue of our 
struggle would become an opportunity for your country to 
take that position which Divine Providence has evidently 

* The Judge aUudes to Hancock and Adams, who were excepted by 
name as "notorious rebels," from Greneral Gage's proclamation of 
amnesty. 



SENTENCE FROM CANNING. 303 

assigned to you ; I mean the position of a power, not restricted 
in its influence to the Western Hemisphere, but reaching 
across the earth. You had not thought that it is the struggle 
of Hungary which will call on you to fulfil the prophecy of 
Canning ; who comprehended, that it is the destiny of the 
New World to redress the balance of power in the Old. 

The universal importance of our contest has been but late 
revealed. It has been revealed by the interference of Eussia, 
by our fall and by its more threatening results. 

Now, it has become evident to all thinking men, that the 
balance of power cannot be redressed unless Hungary is 
restored to national independence. Consequently if it be 
your own necessity to weigh in the scale of the powers on 
earth, if it be your destiny to redress the balance of power, 
the cause of Hungary is the field where this destiny will 
have to be fulfilled. 

And it is indeed your destiny. Eussian diplomacy could 
never boast of a greater and more fatal victory, than it had a 
right to boast, should it succeed to persuade the United States 
not to care about her — Eussia accomplishing her aim to be- 
come the ruling power in Europe ; the ruling power in Asia ; 
the ruling power of the Mediterranean Sea. That would be 
indeed a great triumph to Eussian diplomacy, greater than 
her triumph over Hungary ; a triumph dreadful to all 
humanity, but to nobody more dreadful than to your own 
future. 

All sophistry is in vain, gentlemen ; there can be no mistake 
about it. Eussian absolutism and Anglo Saxon constitution- 
alism are not rival but antagonist powers. They cannot long 
continue to subsist together. Antagonists cannot hold equal 
position; every additional strength of the one is a comparative 
weakening of the other. One or the other must yield. One 
or the other must perish or become dependent on the other's 
will. 

You may perhaps believe that that triumph of diplomacy is 
impossible in America. But I am sorry to say, that it has a 
dangerous ally, in the propensity to believe, that the field of 
American policy is limited geographically; that there is a 
field for American, and there is a field for European policy. 



304 SERIOUS PAST MISTAKE 

and that these fields are distinct, and that it is your interest to 
keep them distinct. 

There was a time in our struggle, when, if a man had come 
from America, bringing us in- official capacity the tidings of 
your brotherly greeting, of your approbation and your sym- 
pathy, he would have been regarded like a harbinger of heaven. 
The Hungarian nation, tired out by the hard task of dearly 
but gloriously bought victories, was longing for a little rest, 
when the numerous hordes of Eussia fell upon us in the 
hour of momentary exhaustion. Indignation supplied the 
wanted rest, and we rose to meet the intruding foe ; but it 
was natural that the nation looked around with anxiety, 
whether there be no power on earth raising its protesting 
voice against that impious act of trampling down the law of 
nations, the common property of all humanity ? no power 
on earth to cheer us by a word of approbation of our legiti- 
inate defence ? Alas ! no such word was heard. We stood 
forsaken and alone ! It was upon that ground of forsakeniless 
that treason spread its poison into our ranks. They told my 
nation " Your case is hopeless. Kossuth has assured you 
that if you drive out the Austrians from your territory, and 
declare your independence, it perhaps will be recognized by 
the French Eepublic, probably by England, and certainly by 
America ; but look ! none has recognized you ; not even the 
United States, though with them it was from the time of 
Washington always a constant principle to recognize every 
government. You are not recognized. You are forsaken by 
the whole world ! Kossuth has assured you, that it is im- 
possible the constitutional powers of the world should permit 
without a word of protest Eussia to interfere with the domestic 
concerns of Hungary ; and look ! Eussia has interfered, the 
laws of nations are broken, the political balance of power is 
upset. Eussia has assumed the position of a despotic arbiter 
of the condition of the world, and still, nobody has raised 
a single word of protest in favour of Hungary's just and holy 
cause." Such was the insinuation, which Eussian Diplomacy, 
with its wonted subterraneous skiU, instilled drop by drop 
into my brave people's manly heart ; and alas 1 I could not 
r say that the insinuation was false. The FrencJi Rejrjublic, 



IN AMERICAN POLICY. 305 

instead of protesting against the interference of Eiissia, 
followed its example and interfered itself at Home, Great 
Britain instead of protesting, cJiecJced Turkey in her resolution 
to oppose that new aggrandizement of Russia ; and the United 
States of America remained silent, instead of protesting 
against the violation of those *' laws of nature and of nature's 
God," in the maintenance of which nobody can be more 
interested, than the great Eepublic of America. 

In short, it was by our feeling forsaken, that the skill of 
our enemies spread despondency through our ranks ; and 
this despondency, not the arms of Eussia, caused us to 
fall. Self-confidence lost is more than half a defeat. Had 
America sent a diplomatic agent to Hungary, greeting us 
amongst the independent powers on earth, recognizing our 
independence, and declaring Eussian interference to be con- 
trary to the laws of nations, that despondency, that loss of 
self-confidence, had never gained ground among us ; with- 
out this, treason would have been impossible, and without 
treason all the disposable power of Eussia would never have 
succeeded to overcome our arms ; — never ! I should rather 
have brought the well-deserved punishment home to her, 
should have shaken her at home. Poland — heroic, unfortu- 
nate Poland would now be free, Turkey delivered from the 
night-mare now pressing her chest, and I, accordmg to all 
probability, should have seen Moscow in triumph, instead of 
seeing Salem in exile ! 

Well, there is a just God in heaven, and there will yet 
be justice on earth ; — the day of retribution will come ! 

Such being the sad tale of my fatherland, which by a 
timely token of your brotherly sympathy might have been 
saved, and which now has lost everything, except its honour, 
its trust in God, its hope of resurrection, its confidence in 
my patriotic exertions, and its steady resolution to strike once 
more the inexorable blow of retribution at tyrants and tyranny; 
— if the cause I plead were a particular cause, I would place 
it upon the ground of well deserved sympathy, and would 
try to kindle into a flame of excitement the generous aftec- 
tions of your hearts : and I should succeed. 

But since a great crisis, which is universally felt to be ap- 



306 AMERICA WILL NOT BE ALLOWED 

preaching, enables me to claim for my cause a universality 
not restricted by the geographical limits of a country or even 
of Europe itself, or by the moral limits of nationalities, but 
possessing an interest common to all the christian world ; it is 
calm, considerate conviction, and 7iot the passing excitement of 
generous sentiments, which I seek. I hope therefore to meet 
the approbation of this intelligent assembly, when instead of 
pleasing you by an attempt at eloquence, for which, in my 
sick condition, I indeed have not sufficient freshness of mind 
— I enter into some dry but not unimportant considerations, 
which the citizens of Salem, claiming the glory of high com- 
mercial reputation, will kindly appreciate. 

Gentlemen, I have often heard the remark, that if the 
United States do not care for the policy of the world, they 
will continue to gi'ow internally and will soon become the 
mightiest realm on earth, a Eepublic of a hundred millions of 
energetic freemen, strong enough to defy all the rest of the 
world and to control the destinies of mankind. And surely 
this is your glorious lot ; but only under the condition^ that 
no hostile combination, before you have in peace and in 
tranquillity grown so strong, arrests by craft and violence your 
giant-course ; and this again is possible, only under the 
condition that Europe become free and the league of despots 
become not sufficiently powerful to check the peaceful develop- 
ment of your strength. But Ptussia too, the embodiment of 
the principle of despotism, is working hard for the develop- 
ment of lier power. Whilst you grow internally, her able 
diplomacy has spread its nets all over the continent of Europe. 
There is scarcely a Prince there but feels honoured to be an 
underling of the great Czar; the despots are all leagued 
against the freedom of the nations ; and should the principle 
of absolutism consolidate its power, and lastingly keep down 
the nations, then it must, even by the instinct of self-preser- 
vation, try to check the further development of your Eepublic. 
In vain they would have spilt the blood of millions, in 
vain they would have doomed themselves to eternal curses, 
if they allowed the United States to become the ruling power 
on earth.* They crushed poor Hungary, because her example 
was considered dangerous. < Hovf could they permit you to 



BY RUSSIA TO GROW STRONGER. 307 

become so mighty, as to be not only dangerous by your 
example, but by your power a certain ruin to despotism ? 
They will, they must, do everything to check your glorious 
progress, Be sure, as soon as they have crushed the spirit 
of freedom in Europe, as soon as they command all the forces 
of the Continent, they will marshal them against you. Of 
course they will not lead their fleets and armies at once across 
the Ocean. They will first damage your prosperity by 
crippling your commerce. They will exclude America from 
the markets of Europe, not only because they fear the repub- 
lican propagandism of your commerce, but also because 
"Eussia requires those markets for her own products. 

[He proceeded to argue, that Eussian policy, like that of 
the Magyars in their time of barbarism, is essentially 
encroaching and warlike ; that to be feared, is often more 
important to Eussia than to enjoy a particular market ; that 
the Eussian system of commerce is, and must be, prohibitory 
to republican traffic ; that England alone in Europe has large 
commerce with America, and that the despots, if victorious 
on the continent, would make it their great object to damage, 
cripple, and ruin both these kindred constitutional nations. 
He continued :] 

The despots are scheming to muzzle the English lion. 
You see already how they are preparing for this blow — that 
Eussia may become mistress of Constantinople, by Constan- 
tinople mistress of the Mediterranean, and by the Mediterra- 
nean of three-quarters of the globe. Egypt, Macedonia, 
Asia-Minor, the country and early home of the cotton plant, 
are then the immediate provinces of Eussia, a realm with 
twenty million serfs, subject to its policy and depending on 
its arbitrary will. 

Here is a circumstance highly interesting to the United 
States. Constantinople is the key to Eussia. To be prepon- 
derant, she knows it is necessary for her to be a maritime 
power. The Black Sea is only a lake, like Lake Leman ; the 
Baltic is frozen five months in a year. These are all the seas 
she possesses. Constantinople is the key to the palace of the 
Czars. Eussia is already omnipotent on the Continent : once 
master of the Mediterranean, it is not difficult to see that the 



308 FORM OF RUSSIAN ASSAULTS. 

power which already controls three-quarters of the world, will 
soon have the fourth quarter. 

Whilst the victory of the nations of Europe w^ould open 
to you the markets, till now closed to your products, the 
consolidation of despotism destroys your commerce unavoid- 
ably. If your wheat, your tobacco, your cotton, were 
excluded from Europe but for one year, there is no farm, no 
plantation, no banking-house, which would not feel the 
terrible shock of such a convulsion. 

And hand-in-hand with the commercial restrictions you 
will then see an establishment of monarchies from Cape Horn 
to the Eio Grande del Norte. Cuba becomes a battery 
against the mouth of the Mississippi ; the Sandwich Islands 
a barrier to your commerce on the Pacific ; Eussian diplo- 
macy will foster your domestic dissensions and rouse the 
South against the Xorth and the North against the South, 
the sea-coast against the inland States and the inland States 
against the sea- coast, the Pacific interests against the Atlantic 
interests ; and when discord paralyzes your forces, then 
comes at last the foreign interference, preceded by the decla- 
ration, that the European powers havings with your silent 
consent, inscribed into the code of international law, the 
principle that every foreign power has the right to interfere 
in the domestic affairs of any nation when these become a 
dangerous example, and your example and your republican 
principles being dangerous to the absolutist powers, and your 
domestic dissensions dangerous to the order and tranquillity 
of Europe, and therefore they consider it their *' duty to in- 
terfere in America." And Europe being oppressed, you will 
have, single-handed, to encounter the combined forces of the 
world! I say no more about this subject. America will 
remember then the poor exile, if it does not in time enter 
upon that course of policy, which the intelligence of Mas- 
sachusetts, together with the young instinct of Ohio, are the 
foremost to understand and to advance. 

A man of your own State, a President of the United States, 
John Quincy Adams, with enlarged sagacity, accepted the 
Panama Mission, to consider the action of the Holy Alliance 
upon the interests of the South American Republics. 



SHALL HUNGAKY JOIN THE UNION? 309 

Now, I beg you to reflect, gentlemen, how South America 
is difPerent from Europe, as respects your own country. Look 
at the thousand ties that bind you to Europe. In Washing- 
ton, a Senator from California, a generous friend of mine, 
told me he was thirty days by steamer from the Seat of Govern- 
ment. Well, you speak of distance — just give me a good 
steamer and good sailors, and you will in twenty days see 
the flag of freedom raised in Hungary. 

I remember that when one of your glorious Stars (Florida, 
I think it was) was about to be introduced, the question of 
discussion and objection became, that the distance was great. 
It was argued that the limits of the government would be 
extended so far, that its duties could not be properly attended 
to. The President answered, that the distance was not too 
great, if the seat of government could be reached in thirty 
days. So far you have extended your territory ; and I am 
almost inclined to ask my poor Hungary to be accepted as a 
Star in your glorious galaxy. She might become a star in 
this immortal constellation, since she is not so far as thirty 
days oif from you. 

What little English I know, I learned from your Shak- 
speare, and I learned from him that " there are more things 
in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy." 
Who knows what the future may bring forth ? I trust in God 
that all nations will become free, and that they will be united 
for the internal interests of humanity, and in that galaxy of 
freedom I know what place the United States will have. 

One word more. When John Quincy Adams assumed for 
the United States the place of a power on earth, he was ob- 
jected to, because it was thought possible that that step might 
give offence to the Holy Alliance. His answer was in these 
memorable words : " The United States must take counsel of 
their rights and duties, and not from their fears." 

The Anglo-Saxon race represents constitutional govern- 
ments. If it be united for these, we shaU have what we 
want. Fair Play ; and, relying "- upon our God, the justness 
of our cause, iron wills, honest hearts and good swords," 
my people will strike once more for freedom, independence, 
and for Fatherland. 



310 



XLY.-THE MARTYRS OF THE AMERICAN 
REVOLUTION. 

{^Leocington, May 11^^.] 

Kossuth having been invited to visit the first battle fields 
of the Revolution, was accompanied by several members of 
the State Committee, on May 11th, to West Cambridge, 
Lexington, and Concord. He had already visited Bunker 
Hill on the 3d of May, but we have not in these pages found 
room for his speech there. At West Cambridge he was 
addressed by the Rev. Thomas Hill, and replied ; at Lexington 
also he received two addresses, and the following was his 
reply :— 

Gentlemen, — It has been often my lot to stand upon 
classical ground, where the whispering breeze is fraught with 
wonderful tales of devoted virtue, bright glory, and heroic 
deeds. And I have sat upon ruins of ancient greatness, 
blackened by the age of centuries ; and I have seen the 
living ruins of those ancient times, called men, roaming about 
the sacred ground, unconscious that the dust which clung to 
their boots, was the relic of departed demigods — and I rose 
with a deep sigh. Those demigods were but men, and the 
degenerate shapes that roamed around me, on the hallowed 
ground, were also not less than men. The decline and fall 
of nations impresses the mark of degradation on nature 
itself. It is sad to think upon — it lops the soaring wings of 
the mind, and chills the fiery arms of energy. But, however 
dark be the impression of such ruins of vanished greatness 
upon the mind of men who themselves have experienced the 
fragility of human fate, thanks to God, there are bright spots 
yet on earth, where the recollections of the past, brightened 
by present prosperity, strengthen the faith in the future of 
mankind's destiny. Such a spot is this. 

Gentlemen, should the reverence which this spot commands 
allow a smile, I might feel inclined to smile at the eager con- 
troversy whether it was at Lexington or Concord that the fire 
of the British was first returned by Americans. Let it be 
this way or that way, — it will neither increase nor abate the 
merit of the martyrs who fell here. It is with their blood 



OBEDIENCE TO THE GENIUS OF THE TIME. 311 

that the preface of your nation's history is written. Their 
death was, and always will be, the first bloody revelation of 
America's destiny; and Lexington, the opening scene of a 
revolution, of which Governor Bout well was right to say, that 
it is destined to change the character of human governments, 
and the condition of the human race. 

Should the Eepublic of America ever lose the consciousness 
of this destiny, that moment would be just so surely the 
beginning of America's decline, as the 19th of April, 1775, 
was the beginning of the Eepublic of America. 

Prosperity is not always, gentlemen, a guarantee of the 
future, if it be not accompanied with a constant resolution to 
obey the caU of the genius of the time. Nay, material pros- 
perity is often the mark of real decline, when it either results 
in, or is connected with, a moral stagnation in the devoted 
attachment to principles. Eome was never richer, never 
mightier than under Trajan, and still it had already the sting 
of death in its very heart. 

To me, whenever I stand upon such sacred ground as this, 
the spirits of the departed appear like the prophets of future 
events. The language they speak to my heart is the revela- 
tion of Providence. 

The struggle of America for independence was provi- 
dential. It was a necessity. Those circumstances which 
superficial consideration takes for the motives of the glorious 
Eevolution, were but accidental opportunities for it. Had 
those circumstances not occurred, others would have occurred, 
and might have presented perhaps a different opportunity ; 
but the Hevolution would have come. It was a necessity, 
because the colonies of America had attained that lawful ag-e 
in the development of all the elements of national existence, 
which claims the right to stand by itself, and cannot any 
longer be led by a child's leading strings, be the hand which 
leads it a mother's or a step-mother's. Circumstances and 
the connection of events were such, that this unavoidable 
emancipation had to pass the violent concussion of severe 
trials. The immortal glory of your forefathers was, that 
they did not shrink to accept the trial, and were devoted and 
heroic to sacrifice themselves to their country's destiny. And 



312 FAITHFULNESS TO PRINCIPLE. 

the monuments you erect to their memory, and the religious 
reverence with which you cherish the memory, are indeed 
well deserved tributes of gratitude. 

But allow me to say, there is a tribute which those blessed 
spirits are still more eager to claim from you as the happy 
inheritance of the fruits they have raised for you ; it is, the 
tribute of always remaining tnie to their 'princi/ple ; devoted 
to the destiny of your country, which destiny is to become 
the comer stone of liberty on earth. Empires can be only 
maintained by the same virtue by which they have been 
founded. Oh ! let me hope that, while the recollections con- 
nected with this hallowed ground inspire the heart of a 
wandering exile with consolation, with hope, and with per- 
severance (from the very fact that I have stood here, brought 
with the anxious prayers and expectations of the Old World's 
oppressed millions), you will see the finger of God pointing 
out the appropriate opportunity to act your part in America's 
destiny, by maintaining the laws of Nature and of Nature's 
God, for which your heroes fought and your martyrs died ; 
and to regenerate the world, 

" Proclaiming freedom in the name of Grod," 

till — to continue in the beautiful words of your Whittier — 



" Its blessings fall 



Common as dew and sunshine over all." 

[From Lexington Kossuth proceeded to Concord, and was 
there addressed by the well known author, Ealph Waldo 
Emerson. His reply was at greater length, and on the same 
subject as at Lexington; yet a part of it may here be 
printed.] 

Eossuth said : — ^ 

In my opinion, there is not a single event in history so dis- 
tinctly marked to be providential — and providential with 
reference to all humanity — as the colonization, revolution, and 
republicanism of the now United States of America. 

This immense continent being peopled with elements of 
European civilization, could not remain a mere appendix to 
Europe. But when it is connected, with Europe by a thou- 



CONTACT BRINGS CONTAGION. 313 

sand social, moral, and material ties, by blood, religion, 
language, science, civilization, and commerce, to believe that 
it can rest isolated in politics from Europe, would be just 
such a fault as it was that England did not believe in time 
the necessity of America's independence. Yes, gentlemen, 
this is so sure to me, that I would pledge life, honour, and 
everything dear to man's heart and honourable to man's 
memory, that either America must take her becoming part in 
the political regeneration of Europe, or she herself must yield 
to the pernicious influence of European politics. There was 
never yet a more fatal mistake, than it would be to believe, 
that by not caring about the political condition of Europe, 
America may remain unaffected by the condition of Europe. 
I could perhaps understand such an opinion if you would or 
could be entirely isolated from Europe ; but as you are not 
isolated, as you cannot be, as you cannot even have the will 
to be (for that very will would be a paradox, a logical absur- 
dity, impossible to be carried out, being contrary to the 
eternal laws of God, which he for nobody's sake will change) ; 
therefore to believe that you can go on to be connected with 
Europe in a thousand respects, and still remain unaffected by 
its social and political condition, would be indeed a fatal 
delusion. 

You stretch out your gigantic hands a thousandfold every 
day over the waves ; your relations with Europe are not only 
commercial as with Asia, they are also social, moral, spiritual, 
intellectual ; you take Europe every day by the hand. How 
then could you believe, that if that hand of Europe, which 
you grasp every day, remains dirty, you can escape from 
soiling your own hands ? The cleaner they are, all the more 
will the filth of old Europe stick to them. There is no 
possible means to escape from being soiled, than to help us, 
Europeans, to wash the hands of our old world. 

You have heard of the ostrich, that when persecuted by an 
enemy, it is wont to hide its head, leaving its body exposed ; 
it believes that by not regarding it, it will not be seen by the 
enemy. That curious aberration is worthy of reflection. It 
is typical. 

Yes, gentlemen, either America will regenerate the condition 

14 



314 AMERICANS MOTTO : AHEAD ! 

of the old world, or it will be ^^generated by the condition of 
the old world. 

Sir, I implore you (Mr. Emerson), give me the aid of your 
philosophical analysis, to impress the conviction upon the 
public mind of your nation that the Eevolution, to which 
Concord was the preface, is full of a higher destiny — of a 
destiny broad as the world, broad as humanity itself. Let 
me entreat you to apply the analytic powers of your pene- 
trating intellect, to disclose the character of the American 
Eevolution as you disclose the character of self-reliance, of 
spiritual laws, of intellect, of nature, or of politics. Lend 
the authority of your judgment to the truth, that the destiny 
of American revolution is not yet fulfilled ; that the task is 
not yet completed ; that to stop half way, is worse than would 
have been not to stir : repeat those words of deep meaning 
which once you wrote about the monsters that looked back- 
ward, and about the walking with reverted eye, while the 
voice of the Almighty says, ''up and onward for ever more^ 
while moreover the instinct of your people, which never fails to 
be right, answered the call of destiny by taking for its motto 
the word ahead. 

Indeed, gentlemen, the monuments you raised to the 
heroic martyrs who fertilized with their hearts' blood the 
soil of libert}^ — these monuments are a fair tribute of well- 
deserved gratitude, gratifying to the spirits who are hover- 
ing around us and honourable to you. Woe to the people 
which neglect to honour its great and good men ; but believe 
me, gentlemen, those blessed spirits would look down with 
saddened brows to this free and happy land, if ever they 
were doomed to see that the happy inheritors of their mar- 
tyrdom imagined that the destiny to which that martyr 
blood was consecrated, is accomplished and its price fully 
paid in the already achieved results, because the living 
generation dwells comfortably and makes tw^o dollars out 
of one. 

No, gentlemen, the stars in the sky have a higher aim than 
merely to illumine the night path of some lonely wanderer. 
The course your nation is called to run, is not yet half per- 
formed. Mind the fable of Atalanta : it was a golden apple 
thrown into her way which made her fall short in her race. 



PASSIVITY IS IMPOTENCE. 315 

Two things I have met here in these free and mighty 
United States, which I am at a loss how to make concord. 
The two things I cannot harmonize are : — First, that all 
your historians, all your statesmen, all your distinguished 
orators, who wrote, or spoke characterize it as an era in 
mankind's history, destined to change the condition of the 
world, upon which it will rain an everflowing influence. And 
secondly, in contradiction to this universally adopted creed, 
I have met in many quarters a propensity to believe that 
it is conservative wisdom not to take any active part in the 
regulation of the outward world. 

These two things do not agree. If that be the destiny of 
America, which you all believe to be, then that destiny can 
never be fulfilled by acting the part of passive spectators, and 
by this very passivity granting a charter to ambitious Czars 
to dispose of the condition of the world. 

I have met distinguished men trusting so much to the 
operative power of your institutions and of your examjjle^ 
that they really believe they will make their way throughout 
the world merely by their moral infiiience. But there is one 
thing those gentlemen have disregarded in their philanthropic 
reliance ; and that is, that the ray of the sun never yet made 
its way by itself through well-closed shutters and doors — 
they must be drawn open, that the blessed rays of the sun 
may get in. I have never yet heard of a despot who yielded 
to the moral influence of liberty. The ground of Concord 
itself is an evidence of it : the doors and shutters of oppres- 
sion must be opened by bayonets, that the blessed rays of 
your institutions may penetrate into the dark dwelling-house 
of oppressed humanity. 

There are men who believe the position of a power on 
earth will come to you by itself \ but oh ! do not trust to 
this fallac}'-^ a position never comes by itself ; it must be 
taken, and taken it never will be by passivity. . 

The martyrs who have hallowed by their Iblood the ground 
of Concord, trusted themselves and occupied the place Divine 
Providence assigned them. Sir, the words are yours which 
I quote. You have told your people that they are now men, 
and must accept in the highest mind the same destiny, that 



316 FRANCE HAS LOST HER 

they are not minors and invalids in a protected corner ; but 
guides, redeemers, and benefactors, advancing on chaos and 
on the dark. 

I pray God to give to your people the sentiment of the 
truth you have taught. 

Your people, fond of its prosperity, loves peace. Well, who 
would not love peace ; but allow me again, sir, to repeat with 
all possible emphasis, the great word you spoke, " Nothing 
can bring you peace but the triumph of principles." 



XLYI.— COl^DITION OF EUEOPE. 

{_Last Speech in Boston.'] 

On May 14th, Kossuth, in obedience to a distinct invita- 
tion, delivered, in Eaneuil Hall, the following ample Speech 
or Lecture, on the present condition of Europe. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — The gigantic struggle of the first 
French Eevolution associated the name of France so much 
with the cause of freedom in Europe, that all the world got 
accustomed to see it take the lead in the struggle for European 
liberty; and to look to it as a power entrusted by Providence 
with the initiation of revolutions ; as a power, without the 
impulse of which, no liberal movement had any hope on the 
European continent. 

I, from my earliest days, never shared that opinion. I felt 
always more sympathy with the Anglo-Saxon character and 
Anglo-Saxon institutions, which raised England, notwith- 
standing its monarchy and its aristocracy, to a position 
prouder than Eome ever held in its most glorious days ; 
and which, free from monarchical and aristocratical ele- 
ments here in America, lie at the foundation of a political 
organization, upon which the first true democratic Eepublic 
was consolidated and developed into freedom, power, and 
prosperity, in such a short time, as to make it a living wonder 
to the contemporary age, and a book full of instruction to 
the coming generations. 

However, that opinion about the French initiative prevailed 
in Europe, and it was a great misfortune ; for you know that 



EUROPEAN INITIATIVE. 317 

France has always as yet forsaken the movement which it 
raised in Europe, and the other nations acting not sponta- 
neously, but only following the impulse which the French had 
imparted to them, faltered and stopped at once, as soon as 
the French failed them. With that opinion of the French 
supremacy, no revolution in Europe could have a definite, 
happy issue. 

Freedom never yet was given to nations as a gift, but only 
as a reward, bravely earned by one's own exertions, ow^n sacri- 
fices ; and own toil ; and never will, never shall it be attained 
otherwise. 

I speak therefore out of profound conviction, when I say 
that, though the heart of the philanthropist must feel pained 
at the new hard trials to which the French nation is, and 
will yet be exposed, by the momentary success of Louis 
Napoleon Bonaparte's inglorious usurpation, still that veiy 
fact will prove advantageous to the ultimate success of liberty 
in Europe. Louis Napoleon's com^ d'etat, much against his 
will, has emancipated Europe from its reliance upon France. 
The combined initiative of nations has succeeded to the ini- 
tiative of France ; spontaneity and self-reliance have replaced 
the depending on foreign impulse and reliance upon foreign 
aid. France is reduced to the level amongst nations, obliged 
to join general combinations, instead of regulating them; 
and this I take for a very great advantage. Many have won- 
dered at the momentary success of Ijouis Napoleon, and are 
inclined to take it for an evidence that the French nation is 
either not capable or not worthy to be free. But that is a 
great fallacy. The momentary success of Louis Napoleon is 
rather an evidence that France is tliorouglily democratic. All 
the revolutions in France have resulted in the preponderance 
of that class which bears the denomination of bourgeoisie. 
Amongst all possible modifications of oppression, none is 
more detested by the people than oppression by an Assembly. 
The National Assembly of France w^as the most treacherous 
the world has ever yet known. Issued from universal suffrage, 
it went so far as to abolish universal suffrage, and eveiy day 
of its existence was a new blow stricken at democracy for the 
profit of the bourgeoisie. Louis Napoleon has beaten asunder 



318 A FRENCH WAR MUST COME. 

that Assembly, which the French democracy had so many 
reasons to hate and to despise, and the people applauded 
him as the people of England applauded Cromwell, when he 
whipped out the Eump Parliament. 

But by what means was Louis Napoleon permitted to do 
even what the people liked to see done ? By no other means, 
but by flattering the principle of Democracy; he restored the 
universal suffrage ; it is an execrable trick, to be sure — it is 
a shadow given for reality ; but still it proves that the demo- 
cratic spirit is so consolidated in France, that even despotic 
ambition must flatter it. Well, depend upon it, this demo- 
cracy, which the victorious usurper feels himself constrained 
to flatter in the brightest moments of his triumph — this demo- 
cracy will either make out of Louis Napoleon a tool, which 
in spite of itself serves the democracy, or it will crush him. 

France is the country of sudden changes, and of unthought 
of accidents. I therefore will not presume to tell the events 
of its next week, but one alternative I dare to state : Louis 
Napoleon either falls or maintains himself. The fall of Louis 
Napoleon, even if brought about by the old monarchical parties, 
can have no other issue than a Eepublic — a Eepublic more 
faithful to the community of freedom in Europe than all the 
former Eevolutions have been. Or if Louis Napoleon main- 
tains himself, he can do so only either by relying upon the 
army, or by flattering the feelings and interest of the masses. 
If he relies upon the army, he must give to it glory and profit, 
or, in other words, he must give to it war. Well, a war of 
France, against whomsoever it be, or for whatever purposes, 
is the best possible chance for the success of a European Kevo- 
lution. Or if Louis Napoleon relies upon the feelings of the 
masses — as indeed he appears willing to do — in that case, 
in spite of himself, he becomes a tool in the hands of demo- 
cracy ; and if, by becoming such, he forsakes th^ allegiance of 
his masters — the league of absolutistical powers — well, he 
will either be forced to attack them, or be attacked by them. 

So much for France ; now as to Italy. 

Italy ! the sunny garden of Europe, whose blossoms are 
blighted by the icy north wind from St. Petersburg — Italy, 
that captured nightingale, placed under a fragrant bush of 



ARE THE ITALIANS SOLDIERS? 319 

roses, beneath an ever blue sky ! Italy was always the battle- 
field of the contending principles, since, hundreds of years ago, 
the German emperors, the kings of Spain, and the kings of 
France, fought their private feuds, their bloody battles on her 
much coveted soil ; and by their destructive influence, kept 
down all progress, and fostered every jealousy. By the re- 
collections of old, the spirit of liberty was nowhere so dan- 
gerous for European absolutism as in Italy. And this spirit 
of republican liberty, this warlike genius of ancient Home, 
was never extinguished between the Alps and the Faro. 

We are taught by the scribes of absolutism to speak of the 
Italians as if they were a nation of cowards, and we forget 
that the most renowned masters of the science of war, the 
greatest generals up to our day, were Italians, — Piccolomini, 
Montecucculi, Farnese, Eugene of Savoy, Spinola, and Bona- 
parte — a galaxy of names whose glory is dimmed only by the 
reflection that none of them fought for his own country. As 
often as the spirit of liberty awoke in Italy, the servile forces 
of Germany, of Spain, and of France poured into the country, 
and extinguished the glowing spark in the blood of the people, 
lest it should once more illumine the dark night of Europe. 
Frederic Barbarossa destroyed Milan to its foundations, when 
it attempted to resist his imperial encroachments by the league 
of independent cities ; and led the plough over the smoking 
ruins. Charles the Fifth had to gather all his powers around 
him to subdue Florence, when it declared itself a democratic 
republic. Napoleon extinguished the last remnants of repub- 
lican self-government by crushing the republics of Yenice, 
Genoa, Lucca, Eagusa, and left only, to ridicule republicanism, 
the commonwealth of San Marino untouched. The Holy 
Alliance parted the spoils of Napoleon, riveted afresh the 
iron fetters which enslave Italy, and forged new spiritual 
fetters ; prevented the extension of education, and destroyed 
the press, in order that the Italians should not remember 
their past. 

Every page, glorious in their history for twenty-five cen- 
turies, is connected with the independence of Italy ; every 
stain upon their honour is connected with foreign rule. And 
the burning minds of the Italians, though all spiritual food 



320 ITALY EVER WAS REPUBLICAN 

is denied to them, cannot be taught not to remember their 
past glory and their present degradation. Every stone 
speaks of the ancient glory ; every Austrian policeman, eveiy 
Erench soldier, of the present degradation. The tyrants 
have no power to unmake history, and to silence the feelings 
of the nation. And amongst all the feelings powerful to stir 
up the activity of mankind, there is none more penetrating 
than unmerited degradation, which impels us to redeem our 
lost honour. What is it therefore that keeps those petty 
tyrants of Italy, who are jealous of one another, on their 
tottering thrones, divided as they are among themselves, 
whilst the revolutionizing spirit of liberty unites the people ? 
It is only the protection of Austria, studding the peninsula with 
her bayonets and with her spies. And Austria herself can 
dare this, only because she relies upon the assistance of Eussia. 
She can send her armies to Italy, because Eussia guards her 
eastern dominions. Let Eussia stand off, and Austria is 
unable to keep Italy in bondage ; and the Italians, united in 
the spirit of independence, will easily settle their account 
with their own weak princes. Keep off the icy blast which 
blows from the Eussian snows, and the tree of freedom will 
grow up in the garden of Europe ; though cut down by the 
despots, it win spring anew from the roots in the soil, which 
was always genial for the tree. Eemember that no insur- 
rection of Italians has been crushed by their own domestic 
tyrants without foreign aid ; remember that one-third of the 
Austrian army which occupies Italy are Hungarians, who 
have fought against and triumphed over the yellow-black 
flag of Austria — under the same tri-colour which, having the 
same colours for both countries, show emblematically that 
Hungary and Italy are but two wings of the same army, 
united against a common enemy. Eemember that even now 
neither the Pope nor the little Princes of middle Italy can 
subsist without an Austrian and a Erench garrison ; and 
remember that Italy is a half isle, open from three sides to 
the friendship of aU who sympathize with civil and religious 
liberty on earth ; but from the sea not open to Eussia and 
Austria, because they are not maritime powers ; and so long 
as England is conscious of the basis of its power, and so 



AND IS NOW STRONG IN UNION. 321 

soon as America gets conscious of the condition upon which 
its future depends, Austria and Russia will never be allowed 
to become maritime powers. 

And when you feel instinctively that the heart of the 
Eoman must rage with fury when he looks back into the 
mirror of his past, — that the Venetian cannot help to weep 
tears of fire and of blood from the Eialto ; — when you feel all 
this, then look back how the Eomans have fought in 1849, 
with a heroism scarcely paralleled in the most glorious day of 
ancient Eome. And let me tell, in addition, upon the certainty 
of my own positive knowledge, that the world never yet has 
seen such a complete and extensive revolutionary organization 
as that of Italy to-day — ready to burst out into an irresistible 
storm at the slightest opportunity, and powerful enough 
to make that opportunity, if either foreign interference is 
checked, or the interfering foreigners occupied at home. The 
revolution of 1848 has revealed and developed the warlike 
spirit of Italy. Except a few wealthy proprietors, already very 
uninfluential, the most singular unanimity exists, both as to 
aim and to means. There is no shade of difference of opinion, 
either to what is to be done or how to do it. All are unan- 
imous in their devotion to the Union and Independence of 
Italy. With France or against France, by the sword, at all 
sacrifices, without compromise, they are bent on renewing 
the battle over and over again, with the confidence that, even 
without aid, they will triumph in the long run. 

The difiiculty in Italy is not how to make a revolution, but 
how to prevent its untimely outbreak ; and still, even in that 
respect, there is such a complete discipline as the world 
never yet has seen. In Eome, Eomagna, Lombardy, Venice, 
Sicily, and all the middle Italy, there exists an invisible 
government, whose influence is everywhere discernible. It 
has eyes and hands in all departments of public service, in 
all classes of society — it has its taxes voluntarily paid- — its 
organized force, its police, its newspapers regularly printed 
and circulated, though the possession of a single copy would 
send the holder to the galleys. The officers of the existing 
government convey the missives of the invisible government, 
the diligences transport its agents. One line from one of 

14 § 



322 GEllMAN MANLINESS HAS NEVER 

these agents opens to you the galleries of art, on prohibited 
days — gives you the protection of uniformed officials. 

That this is the condition of all Italy is shown on one 
side, in the fact that there the King of Naples holds fettered 
in dungeons 25,000 patriots, and Eadetzky has sacrificed 
nearly 4,000 political martyrs on the scaffold; still the 
scaffold continues to be watered with blood, and still the 
dungeons receive new victims, evidently proving what spirit 
exists in the people of Italy. 

And still Americans doubt that we are on the eve of a 
terrible revolution ; and they ask, What use can I make of 
any material aid ? when Italy is a barrel of powder, which 
the slightest spark may light. 

In respect to foreign rule, Germany is more fortunate than 
Italy. From the times of the treaty of Yerdun, when it 
separated from Prance and Italy, through the long period of 
more than a thousand years, no foreign power ever has suc- 
ceeded to rule over Germany ; such is the resistive power of 
the German people to guard its national existence. The 
tyrants w^ho swayed over them were of their own blood. Bnt 
to subdue German liberty, those tyrants were always anxious 
to introduce foreign institutions. First, they swept away the 
ancient Germanic right, the common law, so dear to the 
English and American, an eternal barrier against the en- 
croachments of despotism, and substituted for it the iron 
rule of the imperial Eoman law. The rule of papal Eome 
over the minds of Germany crossed the mountains together 
with the Eoman law, and a spiritual dependency was to be 
established all over the world. The wings of the German 
eagle vv'ere bound, that it should not soar up to the sun of 
truth. But when the oppression became too severe, the 
people of Germany rose against the power of Eome ; — not 
the princes, — though they too were oppressed : but the son 
of the miner of Eisenach, the poor friar, Martin Luther, 
defied the Pope on his throne, and at his bidding the people 
of Germany proved, that it is strong enough to shake oft' 
oppression ; that it is worthy, and that it knows how, to be 
free. And again, when the French, under their Emperor, 
whose genius comprehended everything except freedom. 



YET ENDURED FOREIGN RULE. 323 

extended their moral swrj over Germany, when the princes 
of Germany thronged around the foreign despot, begging 
kingly crowns from the son of the Corsican lawyer, with 
whom the Emperors were happy to form matrimonial alliances 
— with the man who had no other ancestors than his genius, — 
then it was again the people, which did not join in the degra- 
dation of its rulers, but jealous to maintain their national 
independence, turned the foreigner out though his name was 
Napoleon, and broke the yoke asunder, which weighed as 
heavily upon their princes as upon themselves. And still 
there are men in America who despair of the vitality of the 
Germans, of their indomitable power to resist oppression, of 
their love of freedom, and of their devotion to it, proved by 
a glorious history of two thousand years. The German race 
is a power, the vitality and influence of which you can trace 
through the tvorld's history for two thousand years ; you can 
trace it through the history of science and heroism, of 
industry, and of bold enterprizing spirit. Your own country, 
your own national character, bear the mark of German 
vitality. Other nations, now and then, were great by some 
great men — the German people was always great by itself. 

But the German princes cannot bear independence and 
liberty ; they had rather themselves become slaves, the 
underlings of the Czar, than allow that their people should 
enjoy some liberty. An alliance was therefore formed, which 
they blasphemously called the Holy Alliance, — with the 
avowed purpose to keep the people down. The great powers 
guaranteed to the smaller princes — whose name is Legion, 
for they are many, — the power to fleece and torment their 
people, and promised every aid to them against the insur- 
rection of those, who would find that for liberty's sake it is 
worth while to risk their lives and property. It was an 
alliance for the oppression of the nations, not for the main- 
tenance of the princely prerogative. When the Grand-Duke 
of Baden, in a fit of liberality, granted his people the liberty 
of the press, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia 
abolished the law, though it had been carried unanimously by 
the Legislature of Baden and sanctioned by the prince. — Ihe 



324 GERMANY WILL NOT LONG SUBMIT 

Holy Alliance had guaranteed to the princes the power to 
oppress, but not the power to benefit their people. 

But though the great powers interfered often in the prin- 
cipalities and little kingdoms of Germany, indeed as often as 
the spirit of liberty awoke, yet they themselves avoided every 
occasion which would have forced them to request the aid of 
their allies, and especially of Eussia. They knew too well, 
that to accept foreign aid against their own people, was 
nothing else than to lose independence, and was morally the 
same as to kneel down before the Czar and to take the oath 
of allegiance. A government which needs foreign aid against 
its own people, avows that it cannot stand without foreign 
aid. Take that foreign aid — interference ! — away, and it 
falls. 

The dynasties of Austria and Prussia were aware of this. 
They therefore yielded, as often as their encroachments met a 
firm resistance from the people. When my nation so reso- 
lutely resisted in 1823 the attempt to abolish the constitution. 
Prince Metternich himself advised the Emperor Francis to 
yield, and even humbly to apologize to the Diet of 1825. 
The King of Prussia granted even a kind of constitution 
rather than claim the assistance of the Czar. Herein you 
may find the explanation of the fact that the continent of 
Europe is not yet republican. The spirit of freedom, when 
roused by oppression, was lulled into sleep by constitutional 
concessions. The Czar of Eussia was well aware, that this 
system of compro^mise prevents his intruding into the 
domestic concerns of Europe, which would lead him to the 
sovereign mastership over all ; he therefore did everything to 
push the sovereigns to extremities. But this did not succeed, 
until by a palace-revolution in Vienna a weak and cruel youth 
was placed on the throne of Austria, and a passionate woman 
got the reins of government in her hand, and an unprincipled, 
reckless adventurer was ready to carry out every imperial 
whim, regardless of the honour of his country and the in- 
terests of his master. Eussia at last got her aim. Eather 
than acknowledge the rights of Hungary, they bowed before 
the Czar, and gave up the independence of the Austrian 
throne ; they became the underlings of a foreign power, rather^ 



TO ITS PRESENT DEGRADATIONS. 325 

than allow that one of the peoples of the European Continent 
should be really free. Since the fall of Hungary, Eussia is 
the real sovereign of all Germany ; for the first time Germany 
has a foreign master ! and you believe tliat Germany vi^ill 
bear that in the nineteenth century which it never yet has 
borne? Bear that in fulness of age which it never bore 
in childhood ? Soon after, and through the fall of Hungary, 
the pride of Prussia was humiliated. Austrian garrisons 
occupied Hamburg; Schleswig-Holstein was abandoned, 
Hesfeia was chastised, and all that is dear to Germans pur- 
posely affronted. Their dreams of greatness, their longing 
for unity, their aspirations of liberty, were trampled down 
into the dust, and ridicule was thrown upon all elevation of 
mind, upon all manifestation of patriotism. Hassenburg, 
convicted of forgery by the Prussian courts, became Minister 
in Hessia ; the once outlawed Schwarzenberg, and Bach, a 
renegade republican, Ministers of Austria. The peace of the 
graveyard, which tyrants, under the name of order, are try- 
ing to enforce upon the world, has for its guardians outlawed 
reprobates, forgers, and renegades. Could you believe that 
with such elements the spirit of liberty can be crushed? 
Tyrants know that to habituate nations to oppression, the 
moral feeling of the people has to be killed. But could you 
really believe that the moral feeling of such a people as the 
German, stamped in the civilization of which it was one of 
the generating elements, can be killed, or that it can bear for 
a long while such an outrage ? Do you think that the people 
which met the insolent bulls of the Pope in Eome by the 
Reformation and the thirty years' war, and the numberless 
armies of Napoleon by a general rising — that this people will 
tamely submit to the Russian influence, more arrogant than 
the Papal pretensions, more disastrous than the exactions of 
the French Empire ? They broke the power of Rome and of 
Paris ; will they agree to be governed by St. Petersburg ? 
Those who are accustomed to see in history only the Princes, 
will say Aye, but they forget that since the Reformation it is 
no longer the Princes who make the history, but the People ; 
they see the tops of the trees are bent by the powerful 
northern hurricane, and they forget that the stem of the tree 



326 HUNGARIAN MONEYED MEN 

is unmoved. Gentlemen, the German princes bow before the 
Czar, but the German people will never bow before him. 

Let me sum up the philosophy of the present condition of 
German}^ in these few words : 1848 and 1849 have proved 
that the little tyrants of Germany cannot stand by themselves, 
but only by their reliance upon Austria and Prussia. These 
again cannot stand by themselves, but only by their reliance 
upon Eussia. Take this reliance away, by maintaining the 
laws of nations against the principle of interference, — (for the 
joint pov\^ers of America and England can maintain them) — 
and all the despotic governments, reduced to stand by their 
own resources of power, must fall before the never yet sub- 
dued spirit of the people of Germany, like rotten fruit touched 
by a gale. 

Let me now speak about the condition of my own dear 
native land. I hope not to meet any contradiction when I 
say that no condition can and will endure, which is so bad, 
so insupportable, that, by trying to change it, a people can 
lose nothing, and may gain everything. No condition can and 
wiU endure, the maintenance of which is contrary to every 
interest of every class. A revolution on the contrary is un- 
avoidable, when every interest of every class wishes and 
requires it. I will first speak of the lowest, and stiU the most 
powerful of aU., of the material interest. 

There are some countries, where, however insupportable the 
condition of the masses, still the government has an ally in the 
mighty and influential class of bankers, who lend their money 
to support despotism, and in those who have invested their 
fortunes in the shares of these loans, negotiated by bankers, 
who speculate on and with the fortunes of small capitalists. 
That class of men, partly tools of oppression, partly the fools 
of the tools, exists not in Hungary. We have no such bankers 
in Hungary, and but a very smaU inconsiderable number 
who have invested their fortunes in such loan- shares. 
x\nd even the few who had been playing in the fatal loan- 
share game have withdrawn from it, at any price, because 
they feared to lose aU. Erom that quarter therefore the House 
of Austria has no ally in Hungary. 

As to our former aristocracy, a class influential by its 



AND OLD LANDOWNERS. 327 

connections, and by its large landed property : you remember 
that, when we succeeded to abolish the feudal charges, and 
converted millions of our countrymen, of different religion 
and different language, out of leaseholders into free landed 
proprietors, we guaranteed an indemnification to the land- 
owners for what they lost. From a farm of about thirty-five 
to fifty acres of land, the farmer had to work one hundred 
and two days a year for the landowner ; to give him the ninth 
part of all his crops, half a dolhir in ready money, besides 
particular fees for shopkeeping, brewery, mill, &c. We freed 
the people from all the encumbrances, and, thanks to God ! 
that benefit never more can be torn from the people's hands. 
The aristocracy consented to it, because we had guaranteed 
full indemnification. The very material existence of this class 
of former landowners is depending on that indemnification, 
to defray their debts, (which they formerly had the habit 
wantonly to contract,) and to provide for the cultivation of 
their ownr large allodial property, which they formerly culti- 
vated by the hands of their leaseholders, but now have to 
invest capital into. 

Now this indemnification, amounting to one hundred 
millions of dollars, the House of Austria never can realize. 
You know, with its centralized government, which is always 
very expensive, with its standing army of 600,000 men, the 
only support of its precarious existence, with its army of 
spies and secret police, with its system of corruption and 
robbery, with its fourteen hundred millions of debt, with its 
eternal deficit in its current expenditures, with its new loans 
to pay the interest of the old, and with an unavoidable 
bankruptcy impending, — this indemnification Austria never 
can pay to the former aristocracy of Hungary. The only 
means to get this indemnification is the restoration of Hungary 
to its independence by a new revolution. Independent 
Hungary can pay it, because it has no debts, will want no large 
standing armies, and will have a cheap administration, because 
not centralized, but municipal, the people governing itself in 
and through municipalities, the cheapest of all governments. 

Hungary has already pointed out the fund, out of which 
that indemnification can and will be paid, without any 



328 STATE LANDS^ PRIVATE LAND; 

imposition upon the people, or any loss to the common- 
wealth. Hungary has large State lands, belonging to and 
administered by the Commonwealth. I have mathematically 
proved that the landed property of the State, sold in small 
parcels to those who have yet no land, connected with a 
banking operation founded upon that property itself, to 
facilitate the payment of the price, is more than sufficient for 
that indemnification ; besides, a small land tax (which the new 
owners of that immense property, divided into small farms, 
will have to pay, as other landed proprietors), will yield more 
revenue to the Commonwealth than all the proceeds of 
domestic administration. 

This my proposition, having been submitted to the National 
Assembly, was accepted and approved, and has attached to the 
Eevolution the numerous class of farm-labourers who have 
not yet their own farms, but who contemplated with the 
liveliest joy tliis benevolent provision, which Austria can never 
execute ; since, financially ruined as she is, she cannot be 
contented either with the tax revenue or the banking arrange- 
ment, to defray the indemnification ; she sells the stock when- 
ever she can find a man to buy it. 

But here is a remarkable fact, proving how little is the future 
of Austria contemplated as sure even by its votaries. When 
any one is willing to sell landed property in Hungary, foreign 
bankers, Austrian capitalists buy it readily at an enormous 
price, because they know that private transactions will be 
respected by our revolution ; hut from the Government, nobody 
buys a single acre of land, because every man knows that such 
a transaction must be considered void. Nay more, not even 
as a gift is an estate accepted by any one from the present 
government. Haynau himself was offered in reward a large 
landed prc^ierty by the government ; he did not accept it, but 
preferred a comparatively small sum of money, not amounting 
to one-tenth of the value of the offered land, and he bought 
from a private individual a landed property, for the money, 
because that, being a private transaction, is sure to stand : 
whereas in the future of the Austrian government in Hungary 
not even its Haynaus have confidence. 

The manufacturing interests in Hungary anxiously wish, 



TRADE^ AND KOSSUTH NOTES. 329 

and must wish, a revolution, because manufacturing industry- 
is entirely ruined now by Austria. All favour, encouragement, 
and aid, which the national government imparted to industry, 
is not only withdrawn, but replaced by the old system, — 
which is, neither to allow Hungary fi'ee trade, so as to buy 
manufactured articles where they can be had in the best 
quality or at the cheapest price, nor to permit manufacturing 
at home ; but to preserve Hungary in the position of a colonial 
market — a condition always regarded as insupportable, and 
sufficient motive for a revolution, as you yourselves from your 
own history know. 

The commercial interest anxiously desire a revolution, 
because there exists, in fact, no active commerce in Hungary, 
the Hungarian commerce being degraded into a mere broker- 
ship of Vienna. 

All those who have yet in their hands the Hungarian bank 
notes issued by my government, must wish a revolution ; 
because Austria, alike foolish as criminal, has declared them 
to be without value — thus they cannot be restored to value 
but by a revolution. The amount of those bank notes in the 
hands of the people is yet about twenty millions of dollars. 
No menaces, no cruelty can induce the people to give it up to 
the usurper ; they put it into bottles, and bury it in the earth. 
They say : it is good money when Kossuth comes home. But 
while no menaces of Austria can induce the people to give up 
this treasure of our impending revolution, a single line of 
mine, sent home, is obeyed, and the money is treasured up 
where I have designated. 

Do you now understand, gentlemen, by what motive I say 
that once at home in command — if once our struggle is com- 
menced, I do not want your material aid, and neither wish 
nor would accept all your millions — but that I want your 
material aid to get home, and to get home in such a way as 
will inspire confidence in my people, by seeing me bring- 
home the only thing which it has not — aems ! 

But, I am asked, where will T land ? That, of course, I 
will not say — ^perhaps directly at Vienna, like a Montgolfier, 
in a balloon ; but one thing I may say, because that is no 
secret : — remember that all Italy is a sea coast, and that 



330 NEW INTOLERABLE TAXES 

Italy has the same enemy as Hungary — that Italy is the 
left wing of that army of which Hungary is the right wing, 
and that in Italy 40,000 Hungarian soldiers exist, as 
also, in general, in the Austrian army 140,000 Hungarians. 
More I can, and will not say, upon the subject. 

But I will say, that all the amount of taxation the people 
of Hungary formerly had to pay was but four and a half 
million dollars, and now it has to pay sixty-five million 
dollars ; that landowners offer their land to the government, 
to get rid of the land tax which is larger than all the revenue ; 
that w^e have raised 600,000 hundred weight of tobacco — 
now, the monopoly of tobacco being introduced, the people no 
longer smokes and has burnt its tobacco seed. 'We have 
raised 120 million gallons of wine. Gentlemen, I come not 
to interfere with the domestic concerns of America. I have 
no opinion about the Maine liquordaw. For myself I am 
very fond of water, but still may say it is my opinion, it 
will be many years before the Maine liquor-law will pass 
through all Europe. Well, gentlemen, I was about to say, one 
half of the vineyards are cut down ; — hundreds of thousands 
live upon horticulture and fruit cultivation ; yet the trees are 
cut down to escape the heavy taxation laid upon them. The 
stamp tax is introduced, the most insupportable to freemen 
— village is divided from village, town from town, city from 
city, by custom-lines — the poor peasant woman bringing a 
dozen of eggs to the market has to pay the consumption-tax, 
before she is permitted to enter ; and when she brings 
medicine home for her sick child she has again to pay before 
permitted to enter her home. 

And besides this material oppression, and the daily and 
nightly vexations connected with it, — the Protestants deprived 
of the self-government of their church and school, for which 
they have thrice taken up arms victoriously in three cen- 
turies, — the Eoman Catholics deprived of the security of 
their church property, — the people of every race deprived of 
its nationality, because there exists no public life wherein to 
exert it, no national existence, no constitution, no muni- 
cipalities, no native law, no native officials, no security of 
person and of property, but arbitrary power, martial law, 



AND RELIGIOUS OPPRESSION. 331 

and the hangman and the jail, — and on the other side Hun- 
garian patriotism, Hungarian honour, Hungarian heroism, 
Hungarian vitality, stamped in the vicissitudes of one 
thousand years, and tlie consciousness that vie have beaten 
Austria^ when we had no army, no money, no friends, and 
the knowledge that now we have an army, and for home 
purposes have money in the safe-guarded bank-notes, and 
have America for a friend ; and in addition to all this, the 
confidence of my people in my exertions, and the knowledge 
of these exertions ; of which my people is quite as well in- 
formed as yourselves, nay, more, because it sees and knows 
what I do at home, whereas you see only what I do here — 
well, if with all this you still doubt about the struggle in 
Europe being nigh, and still despair of its chance of success, 
then God be merciful to my poor brains, I know not what to 
think. 

Some here take me for a visionary. Curious indeed, if 
that man who, a poor son of the people, took the lead in 
abolishing feudal injustices a thousand years old, created a 
currency of millions in a moneyless nation, and suddenly 
organized armies out of untrained masses of civilians ; 
directed a revolution so as to fix the attention of the whole 
world upon Hungary, beat the old, well-provided power of 
Austria, and crushed its future by his very fall, and forsaken, 
abandoned, in. his very exile is feared by Czars and Emperors, 
and trusted by foreign nations as well as his own — if that 
man be a visionary, then for so much pride I may be excused 
that I would like to look face to face into the eyes of a prac- 
tical man on earth. 

Gentlemen, I had many things yet to say. The condition, 
change, and prospects of Europe are not spoken of so easily, 
as you have seen, when only the condition of my own country 
is touched. I don't know that I shall succeed, but I will 
try to say something about Turkey. 

Turkey ! which deserves your sympathy because it is the 
country of municipal institutions, the country of religious 
toleration. Turkey, when she extended her sway over Tran- 
sylvania and half of Hungary, never interfered with the way 
in which the inhabitants chose to erovern themselves : she 



332 IN 1828^ TURKEY WAS WEAKERj 

even allowed those who lived within her dominions to collect 
there the taxes voted by independent Hungary, with the aim 
to make war against the Porte. Whilst in the other parts 
of Hungary, Protestantism was oppressed by the Austrian 
policy, and the Protestants several times compelled to take 
up arms for the defence of religious liberty in Transylvania, 
under the sovereignty of the Porte the Unitarians got political 
rights, and Protestantism grew up under the protecting wings 
of the Ottoman power. 

The respect for municipal institutions is so deeply rooted 
in the minds of the Turks, that at the time when they became 
masters of the Danubian provinces of Moldavia and Walla- 
chia, they voluntarily excluded themselves from all political 
rights in the newly acquired provinces ; and up to the present 
day, they do not allow that a Mosque should be built, or that 
a Turk should dwell and own landed property across the 
Danube. They do not interfere with the taxation or with the 
internal administration of these provinces; and the last 
organic law of the Empire, the Tanzimat, is nothing but the 
re-declaration of the rights of municipalities, guaranteeing 
them against the centralizing encroachment of the Pashas. 
Whilst Czar Nicholas is about to convert the Protestant po- 
pulation of Livonia and Estland to the Greek church by force 
and by alluring promises, the liberal Sultan Abdul Medjid 
grants fuU religious liberty to all sects of Protestantism. 
But we are accustomed to look upon Turkey as upon a third- 
rate power, only because in 1828 it was defeated by Eussia. 
Let us now see how the balance stood at that time, and how 
it stands now. 

In 1828 the Turkish population was full of hatred on 
account of the extermination of the Janissaries. The Christian 
population was ready to rise against the government, on ac- 
count of the events of the Greek war. Albania was in revolt, 
because it was opposed to the system of conscriptions for 
regular military service. Anatolia was discontented on the 
same ground. Mehemet Ali possessed Egypt, and paralyzed 
the action of the government in Arabia and Syria. Servia 
had just laid down arms, but had not yet concluded peace. 
The Danubian principalities, though unfavourable to Eussia, 



RUSSIA STRONGER^ THAN NOW, 333 

were not hearty in support of the Porte, and remained apa- 
thetic under the occupation of Eussia. The revenue did not 
exceed 400,000,000 piastres (20,000,000 dollars), and was 
insufficient for a second campaign. The new army was not 
yet organized, and amounted only to 32,000 men, without 
tried generals. The fleet had been destroyed at Navarino. 
The foreign diplomatists had left the empire, and the capital 
was exposed to an attack of the enemy. In such a position 
no European government could have risked a war. 

Eussia had just defeated Persia, and by this victory got 
access to the Asiatic provinces of the Turkish empire ; it had 
therefore to defend the frontiers on both sides. Eussia had 
not yet entered into Circassia, and could therefore rally all 
her forces; she had not yet abolished the Poland of 1815, 
and could leave it without garrisons ; she had not yet roused 
the hatred or the jealousies of Europe. She had engaged all 
the natural allies of the Porte into a combination for rousing 
the populations of her enemy, and by her diplomacy she 
gained the power of bringing her fleet into the Mediterranean, 
for blockading the ports of Turkey; and Navarino opened 
for her the Black Sea, where she had thirteen men-of-war. 
Not disturbed by the Porte, by Circassia, by Poland, by 
France, or by England, she had prepared two years for this 
war, whilst her enemy, passing through a terrible crisis, was 
without money, without an organized army, without a fleet, 
without other resources than the feeble Mussulman popula- 
tion on the seat of war. 

Twenty-four years have altered the balance. — Turkey has 
now the enthusiastic support of her Mussulman population. 
The Christian population, with the only exception of Bulgaria, 
partakes of this enthusiasm. AU the warlike tribes, from 
Albania to Kurdistan, are now supporting the authority of 
the Sultan. Mehemet Ali is gone; Arabia and Syria are 
again under the dominion of the Sultan. Servia has made 
peace, and has become the support of Turkey, offering her, 
in case of a Eussian war, 80,000 men. The Principalities 
have become the enemies of Eussia ; they had too long to 
suffer from her oppression. The public revenue has doubled. 
Turkey has organized a regular army of 200,000 men, equal 
to any other, and besides, the militia. She has distinguished 



o64i RUSSIA IS HASTING 

generals — Oiner Pasha, Giiyon. Her fleet is equal to the 
Eiissian fleet in the Black Sea, and her steam-fleet superior 
to the Eussian. She has for allies all the people from the 
Caucasus to the Carpathians. The Circassians, the Tartars 
under Emir Mirza, the Cossacks of the Dobroja, by whom 
the electric shock is transmitted to Poland and Hungary, 
form an unbroken chain, by which the spark is carried into 
the heart of Europe, where all the combustible elements wait 
for the moment of explosion. Twenty-four years ago Turkey 
was believed to be in a decaying state ; it is now stronger 
than it has been for the last hundred years. 

Eussia, during this time, has been unable to overcome the 
resistance of Circassia ; and, cut off from her south-eastern 
provinces, she cannot attack Turkey in the rear. The 
Caucasian lines furnished her, in 1828, with 30,000 men; 
Poland with 100,000 ; the two countries require now an 
army of observation and occupation of 200,000 men; the 
Danubian principalities absorb again 50,000. 

The Eussian fleet remains as it was in 1828 — thirteen 
m.en-of-war then, thirteen now : and whilst, in 1828, she had 
scarcely an enemy in Europe, she has now scarcely one friend, 
except the kings. All her enemies, whom she has defeated 
one by one, have combined against her — Poland, Hungary, 
the Danubian principalities, Turkey, Circassia. 

Where is now the force of Eussia ! Does she not remind 
us of the golden image of Nebuchadnezzar, standing on feet 
of clay ? 

And yet, gentlemen, this Eussia can make doubtful the 
struggle in Europe — not because powerful in arms, but 
because it stands ready to support tyrants, when nations are 
tired out in a struggle, or before they have time to make 
preparations for resistance : then only is Eussia a power to 
be feared. Well, gentlemen, shall not America stand up, 
and with powerful voice forbid Eussia to interfere when 
nations have shaken off their domestic tyrants ? Gentlemen, 
remember that Peter the Czar left a last will and testament to 
the people, that Eussia must take Constantinople. Why ? 
that Eussia might be a great power : and that it may be so, 
Constantinople is necessary, because no nation can be a great 
power which is not a maritime power. Now see how Turkey 



TO ATTACK TURKEY. 335 

has grown in twenty -four years. The more Eussia delays, 
the stronger Turkey becomes, and therefore is Eussia in 
haste to fulfil the destiny of being a maritime power. 

You can now see why is my fear, that this week, or this 
month, or this year, Eussia will attack Turkey, and we shall 
not be entirely prepared : but though you do not give us 
'' material aid," still we must rise w^hen Turkey is attacked, 
because we must not lose its 400,000 soldiers. The time 
draws nigh when you will see more the reason T have 
to hasten these preparations, that they may be complete, 
whenever through the death of Nicholas or Louis Napoleon 
or a thousand other things, — most probably a war between 
Eussia and Turkey, — we want to take time by the forelock. 

But, gentlemen, let me close. I am often told, let only 
the time come when the Eepublican banner is unfurled in 
the Old World, then we shall see what America will do. 
Well, gentlemen, your aid may come too late to be rendered 
beneficial. Eemember 1848 and 1849. Had the nations of 
Europe not your sympathy ? Were your hearts less generous 
than now ? It was not in time — it came after, not before. 
Was your government not inclined to recognize nations ? It 
sent Mr. Mann to Hungary to inquire — would that when he 
inquired h^ had been authorized to recognize our achieved 
independence ! 

Gentlemen, let me end. Before all, let me thank you for 
your generous patience. This is my last meeting. What- 
ever may be my fate, so much I can say, that the name of 
Boston and Massachusetts will remain a dear word and a 
dear name, not only to me but to my people for all time. 
And w^hatever my fate, I will, with the last breath of my life, 
raise the prayer to God that he may bless you, and bless your 
city and bless your country, and bless all your land, for all 
the coming time and to the end of time; that your "freedom 
and prosperity may still grow and increase from day to day ; 
and that one glory should be added to the glory which you 
already have : the glory that America, Eepublican America, 
may unite with her other principles the principle of Christian 
brotherly love among the family of nations ; and so may she 
become the corner stone of Liberty on earth ! That is my 
farewell word to you. 



336 

XLYII.— PEONOUNCEMENT OF ALL THE STATES. 

lAlbant/j May 20^^.] 

On May 20tli, Kossuth was received in Albany, the chief 
city of New York State, by Governor Hunt, in the name of the 
citizens. In reply to his address, Kossuth then addressed the 
audience substantially as follows : — 

Gentlemen, — More than five months have passed since my 
landing in New York. The novelty has long since subsided, 
and emotion has died away. The spell is broken which 
distance and misfortune cast around my name. The freshness 
of my very ideas is worn out. Incessant toils spread a 
languor upon me, unpleasant to look upon. The skill of in- 
trigues, aspersing me with calumny; wilful misrepresentations, 
pouring cold water upon generous sympathy ; Louis Napo- 
leon's momentary success, shaking the faith of cold politicians 
in the near impend ency of a European struggle for liberty ; 
and in addition to all this, the Presidential election, absorbing 
public attention, and lowering every high aspiration into the 
narrow scope of party spirit, busy for party triumph ; all 
these circumstances, and many besides too numerous to 
record, joined to make it probable that the last days of my 
wanderings on American soil would be entirely different from 
those in which the hundred thousands of the " Empire City,"* 
thundered up to the high heaven the cheers of their hurrahs, 
till they sounded like a defiance of a free people to the proud 
despots of the world. And yet, notwithstanding all these 
disadvantageous concurrencies, no change has taken place in 
the public spirit of America. I may have lost in your kind 
estimation of my humble self, but my cause has not lost. It 
is standing higher than ever it stood, and the future in your 
country's policy is ensured to it. 

Gentlemen, present bounty wiU never weaken in my mind 
the thankful appreciation of former benefits. The generous 
manifestation of sympathy I met on my arrival, will always 
remain recorded with unfading gratitude in my heart ; but no 
just man can feel offended when I say, that it is the manner 
of the '[farewelV which decides upon the value of the 

* New York. 



HIS FAREWELL BETTER THAN HIS WELCOME. 337 

" welcome,''^ The result of my endeavours in America will not 
be measured by how I was, received when I came, but by how 
I am treated when I leave. You know, " All's well that ends 
well," and to be well, things must end well. And being about 
to close my task in America, I cannot help to say, that the 
generous reception you have honoured me with, is doubly 
gratifying to my countrymen, who have watched with intense 
interest my progress in America — and doubly dear to my 
heart, because it is an evidence that the "fai-ewelV given to 
the wandering exile's course, confirms the expectations which 
the '^ welcome'' had roused. 

The warm reception Albany has given me, is like the point 
upon the letter '' i " — it decides its meaning. The metropolis 
of the Empire State gave abundantly the first flowers to the 
garland of America's sympathy for the condition of the 
Old World. Many a flower was added to it from many a place. 
Wherever there is a people there was a new garden of sym- 
pathy : and whatever be the obligations I owe — and gladly 
own — to many a quarter of the United States, it is but a 
tribute due to justice publicly to avow, that Ohio, with the 
bold resolution of its youthful strength, and Massachusetts, 
with its consistent traditional energy, stood pre-eminent in 
the decided comprehension of America's destiny — and now 
the Capitol of the Empire State winds up the garland of 
America. New YorJc achieves what New York has begun, and 
thus, in leaving America, I have an answer to bring to 
Europe's oppressed millions ; and the answer is satisfactory, 
because I know what position America will take in the 
approaching crisis of the world. 

There are moments in the national life of a people, when 
to adopt a certain course becomes a natural necessity : and in 
such moments the people always gets instinctively conscious 
of the necessity, and answers it by adopting a direction 
spontaneously. That direction is decisive. It must be 
followed : and it is followed. Pre-eminent patriots, joining 
in the people's instinct, may become either the interpreters or 
the executors of it ; but they can neither impart their own 
direction to the people, nor alter that which public opinion 
has fixed. There are no other means to become a great 

15 



338 THE POPULAR VOICE. 

man and a great patriot but by becoming the impersonification 
of the public sentiment, conscious of a surpassing public 
necessity. Those who would endeavour to measure great 
things by a small individual scale, would always fall short in 
their calculations, and be left behind. 

There have been already several such moments in your 
country's brief but glorious history. I will only mention 
your glorious Eevolution of 1775. Who made that Eevo- 
lution ? Tlie People ; the unnamed heroes ; the Public 
Opinion. If the question had been left to the decision of 
some few, though the best and the wisest of all, they never 
would have advised a struggle ; but would have arranged 
matters diplomatically. You remember what anxious endea- 
vours were made to prove that it was not the Americans who 
fired the first shot, and how exculpations were sent to England 
with protestations of allegiance. All those little steps were 
vain. The people felt that it was time to become an inde- 
pendent nation ; and feeling the necessity of the moment, it 
took a direction by itself, and made the Eevolution by itself. 

Now-a-days it is of an equally pregnant necessity to the 
United States, to take the position of a power on earth. 
Nobody can hereafter make the people believe that it is 
possible for America to remain unafi'ected by the condition of 
the Old World, — to advise that the United States shall still 
abstain from mixing up their concerns with those of Europe. 
The question to be decided is not whether America shall mix 
its concerns with those of the Old World ; because that is 
done. But the question is, whether the United States shall 
take a seat in the great Amphictyonic Council of the nations 
or not ? And whether it shall be permitted to some crowned 
mortals to substitute the whims of their ambition in the place 
of international law ; — to set up and to upset the balance of 
power as they please ; and to regulate the common concerns 
of the world ? And shall the United States accept whatever 
the Czar may be pleased to decide about those common con- 
cerns ? And shall the United States silently look on, however 
the Czar may grow upon the ruins of common international 
law, to an all-overwhelming preponderance ? 

That is the question. And that being the question, the 



DOCTRINE OF WAYLAND. 339 

people has answered it, and has pronounced about it in a 
manner too positive and too evident to be mistaken. It is 
ah'eady more than a year ago, that a distinguished American 
diplomatist publicly advertised his fellow-statesmen, that " it 
is the popular voice which will henceforth decide, without 
appeal, the great coming questions in your foreign policy, 
before the Executive or Congress can consider them." Some 
have reproached me for unprecedented arrogance in trying to 
change the hereditary policy of the United States. But it is 
not so. I did but engage public attention to consider the 
exigencies of time and circumstances. Th^ finger of the clock 
only shows the hour, but makes not the time. And so did I. 
And allow me to say, that the coming of such a time was 
already anticipated by many of your own fellow-citizens, long 
before my humble name, or even the name of my country, was 
known in America. Please to read the works of your dis- 
tinguished countryman Wayland, who for more than thirty 
years was engaged at one of your high schools in the noble 
task of instilling sound political principles and enlightened 
patriotism into the heart and mind of your rising generation. 
You will find that already in 1835, after having spoken of 
the effects which this country might produce upon the politics 
of Europe simply by her example, he thus proceeds : — 

''It is not impossible however, that this country may be 
called to exert an influence still more direct on the destinies 
of men. Should the rulers of Europe make war upon the 
principles of our Constitution, because its existence ^'^ may 
operate as an example,'' or should a universal appeal be made 
to arms on the question of civil and religious liberty, it is 
manifest that we must take no secondary part in the contro- 
versy. The contest will involve the civilized world, and the 
blow will be struck which must decide the fate of men for 
centuries to come. Then will the hour have arrived, when^ 
uniting with herself the friends of Freedom throughout the 
world, this country must breast herself to the shock of con- 
gregated nations. Then will she need the wealth of her 
merchants, the powers of her warriors, and the sagacity of 
her statesmen. Then on the altar of our God, let each one 
devote himself to the cause of the human race, and in the 



340 CREATIVE POWERS 

name of the Lord of Hosts go forth unto the battle! If need 
be let our choicest blood flow freely, for life itself is valueless 
when suchiinterests are at stake. Then, when a world in arms 
is assembling to the conflict, may this country be found 
fighting in the vanguard for the liberties of man ! God 
himself has summoned her to the contest, and she may not 
shrink back. For this hour may He by His grace prepare 
her !" 

Thus wrote a learned American Patriot as early as 1825; 
and he stands high even to-day in the estimation of his fellow- 
citizens ; and no man ever charged him with being presump- 
tuously arrogant for having shown such a perspective of coming 
necessities to America. His profound sagacity, pondering the 
logical issue of America's position, has penetrated into the 
hidden mystery of future events ; and he has seen his country 
summoned, by God himself, to fight in the vanguard for 
mankind's civil and religious liberty. 

* * * * 

XLTHI.— SOUND AND UNSOUND COMMEECE. 

\_Speecli at Buffalo.'] 

On the 27th May thirty thousand persons assembled in 
the Park at Buffalo, where Kossuth had a magnificently en- 
thusiastic reception. In the evening he was escorted to 
American Hall by the mayor and others. For a portion only 
of his Speech, in reply to the address of the Hon. Thomas 
Love, can we here find room. 

The Austrian minister (said he) has left the United States. 
Proud Austria has no longer a representative here, but down- 
trodden Hungary has. The Chevalier Hulsemann has at last 
taken his departure, without even a chivalrous farewell ; the 
Secretary of State let him depart, without either alarm or 
regret. 

"AU right !" gentlemen. Two years ago there was much 
alarm in certain quarters, when the idea of *such a rupture 
was first suggested. Five months ago, when in one of my 



OF SOUND COMMERCE. 341 

public addresses I wished a good journey to Mr. Hulsemann, 
some thought it rather presumptuous. But now that he has 
left, no man cares about it, scarcely any man takes notice of 
it. The time may yet come, when Mr. Hulsemami's masters 
will be fully aware, that what he is pleased to call tlie Kossuth 
episode is a serious drama — a drama in which, I trust, America 
will so act its part, that in the catastrophe justice and freedom 
shall triumph, violence and oppression shall fall. 

In my many speeches I have dwelt largely on the necessity 
that there is for America to act this part. I have not con- 
cealed that I am informed that many gentlemen of commerce 
are timid concerning it, and I have ventured to warn this 
young but great republic against materialism. But commerce 
involves this danger only when it is bent on instant profit at 
any price, and cares nothing for the future, nothing about 
that solidity of commercial relations on which permanent 
prosperity depends. Adventurous money -hunting is not com- 
merce. Commerce, republican commerce, raised single cities to 
the position of mighty powers on earth, and maintained them 
there for centuries. It is merchants whose names shine with 
immortal lustre from the glorious book of Yenice and Genoa. 
Commerce, as I understand it, does indeed apply its finger to 
the pulsations of present conjunctures, but not the less fixes 
its eye steadily on the future. Its heart warms with noble 
patriotism and philanthropy, connecting individual profit 
with the development of natural resources and of national 
welfare ; so that it spreads over the multitudes like a dew of 
Heaven upon the earth, which blossoms through it with the 
flower of prosperity. Such a commercial spirit is a rich source 
of national happiness ; — a guarantee of a country's future, a 
pillar of its power, a vehicle of civilization and convoyer of 
principles. 

Let me exemplify the difference between that noble bene- 
ficent spirit of commerce and the merely material money 
hunting, which falsely usurps the name of commerce. 

Since the fatal arithmetical skill of Eothschilds has found 
out how to gain millions by negotiating, out of the pockets 
of the public, loan after loan for the despots, to oppress the 
blind-folded nations, a sort of speculation has gained ground 



343 JOBBERY WASTEFUL AND OPPRESSIVE. 

in the Old World, worthy of the execration of humanity — I 
mean the speculation in loan shares ; — the paper commerce 
called stock -jobbing. It is the shame-brand upon our 
century's brow, that such a commerce is become a political 
power on earth ; and unscrupulous gamesters, speculating 
upon the ruin of their neighbours, hold the political ther- 
mometer of peace and war in their criminal hands. But it 
is not commerce — it deserves not the name of commerce — it 
does not contribute to public welfare — it does not augment the 
elements of public prosperity — it is but immoral gambling, 
which transfers an unproductive imaginaiy wealth from one 
hand into another without augmenting the stock of national 
property : — that is not commerce : and it is a degradation of 
the character of a nation, when the interests of that speculation 
have the slightest influence, or are made of the slightest con- 
sideration in the regulation of a country's policy. Such an 
example has its full weight with every other kind of mere 
money -hunting. It would be the greatest fault to regulate 
a country's policy according to the momentary interests of 
worshippers of the almighty dollar, who look but for a momen- 
tary profit, not caring for their fatherland and humanity — 
nothing for the principles — nothing about the tears and exe- 
cration of millions, if only that condition remains intact 
which gives them individual profit — though that condition 
be the misfortune of a world. Wherever that class of money- 
hunters is influential, there is a disease in the constitution 
of the community. It is in vain to complain against the 
dangerous doctrines of socialism, so long as such money- 
hunters have any influence upon politics. The genus of 
Eothschilds has done more for the spread of Socialism than 
its most passionate sectarians. 

Take on the other side the contrasting fact of the Erie 
Canal. I remember well that some were terrified, when in 
the councils of the Empire State first was started the idea of 
that gigantic enterprize. And now when we hear that its 
nett proceeds amount to about three millions of dollars a 
year — when we see the almost unbroken line of boats on it 
— when we see Buffalo becoming the heart of the West, the 
pulsation of which conveys the warm tide of life to the East ; 



THE ERIE CANAL. 343 

and by the communication of that artery, bringing the won- 
derful combination of the great western lakes into immediate 
connection with the Atlantic and through the Atlantic with 
the Old World — when we see Bujffalo, though at four hundred 
miles distance from the ocean, without a navigable river, 
living, acting, and operating like a seaport ; and New York, 
situated on the shores of the Atlantic, acting as if it were 
the metropolis of the West — when we consider how commerce 
becomes a magic wand, and transforms a world of wilder- 
ness into a garden of prosperity, and spreads the blessings of 
civilization where some years ago only the wild beasts and 
the Indian roamed — then indeed we bow with reverential awe 
before the creating power of that commerce. We feel that 
the spirit of it is not a mere money-hunting, but a mighty 
instrumentality of Providence for the moral and social benefit 
of the world ; and we at once feel that the interests of such a 
commerce underlie so much the foundation of your country's 
future, that not only are they entitled to enter into the regu- 
lating considerations of your country's policy, but they must 
enter — they must have a decisive weight — and they will have 
it, whatever be the declamations of learned politicians who 
have so much looked to the authority of past times that they 
hjave found no time to see the imperious necessity of present 
exigencies. 

There are still some who advise you to follow the policy 
of separation from Europe, which Washington wisely advised 
in his days — wisely, because it was a necessity of those 
times. I have on many occasions adduced arguments 
against this, which to me are quite convincing. Yet to some 
minds custom is of so much more power than argument, that 
I could not forbear to feel some uneasiness. But to-day, 
gentlemen, I no longer feel such uneasiness. I am en- 
tirely tranquillized. I want no more arguments, because I 
have the knowledge of facts, and to those who still advocate 
the policy of separatism I will say, " Have you seen the city 
of Buffalo ? Go ! and look at it ; when you have seen what 
Buffalo is, consider what are the interests which created that 
city, and are personified by that city ; then trace those in- 
terests back to New York, and from New York across the 



344 AMERICA HAS BOLDLY ASSERTED 

Atlantic to the Old World; and again, the returning in- 
terests of intercourse from the Old World to New York and 
hence to Buffalo, and from Buffalo to the West, and then 
speak of the wisdom of separatism !" What exists, exists. 
The facts will laugh at your reflections ; they will tell 
you that they cannot be undone. They will tell you that 
you are like Endymion, whom Diana made sleep until the 
twig on which he leaned his head had become a tree. They 
will tell you that you could as well reduce Buffalo to the log 
house of MiDDEAU and Lane; the mighty democrat the 
steam-engine to the horse on the back of which Ezra 
Metcalf brought the first public mail to the sixteen dwelling 
houses, which some forty years ago composed all Buffalo ; 
you couhl as well reduce the Erie Canal to where it was when 
Governor Morris first mef\tioned the idea of tapping 
Lake Erie, or reduce the West to a desert, and western New 
York to the condition in which Washington saw it when 
journeying towards the Far AVest. 

All this you could as easily do as adhere any longer to 
the policy of separatism, or persuade the people of the United 
States not to take any part in the great political transactions 
of the Old Worid. 

In that respect, gentlemen, I am entirely tranquillized ; and 
tranquillized also I am in this respect, that it is impossible 
the active sympathies of your people should not side with 
freedom and right against oppression and violence. That 
will be done. I want no assurance about it, — being an im- 
perative corollary of existing facts. Public opinion is aroused 
to the appreciation of these facts and of their necessary 
exigencies. The only thing which I in that respect have yet 
to desire, is, to see the people of the United States presuaded 
that it is time to prepare already to meet those exigencies ; 
and that it is wise not to let themselves be overtaken by 
impending events. 

[Kossuth then proceeded to speak of subjects elsewhere 
very fully treated, and continued :] 

Once more, I repeat, a timely pronouncement of the United 
States would avert and prevent a second interference of 
Eussia. She must sharpen the fangs of her Bear, and get a 



HER MARITIME RIGHTS. 345 

host of other beasts into her menagerie, before she will pro- 
voke the Eagle of America. Eut beware, bew^are of lone- 
liness. If your protest be delayed too long, you will have to 
fight alone against a world ; while now, you will only have to 
watch, and others will fight. 

Allow me to ask, are the United States interested in the 
laws of nations ? can they permit any interpolation in the 
code of these laws without their consent ? I am told by 
some that America had best not intermeddle with. European 
politics, and that you have always avoided to meddle with 
them. But it is not so. Those who make this assertion 
forget history — they forget that the United States have always 
claimed and asserted the right to have their competent weight 
and authority about the maritime law of nations — it was 
one of your Presidents who held this emphatic language to 
the Potentates of Europe : 

*' TFe cannot consent to interpolations in the maritime code of 
nations at the mere will and pleasure of other Governments — 
me deny the right of any such interpolation^ to any one or all 
the nations of the earth without our consent — %ce claim to have 
a voice in all alterations of that code.^^ 

Thus spoke the United States, at a time when they were 
not yet so powerful as they are now. And they thus spoke 
not for themselves only, but for all the nations on earth. And 
to what purpose did they speak those words so full of 
dignity and full of effect? For the maintenance of the 
laws of nations, or one part of them, the maritime code. 
Dauntless and full of resolution, they alone vindicated natural 
rights for every nation on earth, while Europe sacrificed them. 
They vindicated for every nation the proud motto they have 
emblazoned on their banner — ^' Tree Trade and Bailors^ 
Rights,'' and free ships and free goods. 

Now who can any longer charge me that I advance a new 
policy, with that precedent before your eyes ? Would you be 
willing to resign, now that you are powerful, in respect to 
other parts of the laws of nations, that which you have 
boldly taken in respect to one part of them, when you were 
yet comparatively weak ? Or would you do less for the end 
than you have done for the means ? 

15 § 



346 THEY ARE BUT A MEANS TO AN END. 

The maritime part of the international code is no end, but 
only a means to an end. No ship takes sail for the pur- 
pose merely of sailing on the ocean, but for the purpose of 
arriving somewhere. The ocean is but the highway, and 
not the intended terminus. Kussian intervention in Hun- 
gary has blocked up your terminus : and the maritime code 
would be of no avail, if the other provisions of international 
law are to be still blotted out from the code of nations 
by Russian ambition. Let the slightest eruption of the 
political volcano in Europe take place, and you will see. 
You might have seen already during our past struggle, that 
your proud principle of ^' free ships, free goods'' is a mere 
mockery unless the other parts of the laws of nations are 
also maintained. 

That is what I claim from the young and dauntless nation 
of America. I claim that she shall not abandon that position 
in the proud days of her power, which she so boldly took in 
the days of her feebleness. Or are you already declining ? 
Has your prodigious prosperity weakened instead of strength- 
ening your nation's nerves ? So young ! and a Eepublic ! 
and already declining ! when its opposing principle, Eussia, 
rises so boldly and so high ! Oh, no ! God forbid ! That 
would be a sorrowful sight, fraught with the grief of centuries 
for all humanity ! 



(^r®) 



XLIX.->EUSSIA AND THE BALANCE OF POWER. 

\_8yracuse.'] 

At Syracuse, in New York State, Kossuth was received 
with an address of the usual cordiality by the ex-Mayor, 
Harvey Baldwin. Of his ample reply a portion may here be 
presented to the reader. After alluding to Dionysius and 
Timoleon, he came back to the subject of Eussian interfer- 
ence in Hungary, and declared that he would not appeal to 
their passions, but to their calm reason, although he approved 



THE 



347 



of excitement in a good cause, and at any rate trusted that 
Truth and Hope would never be out of fashion at Syracuse. 
He continued : — 

Gentlemen, as the destination of laws in a well-regulated 
community is to uphold right, justice, and security of every 
individual, rich or poor, powerful or weak, and to protect his 
life against violence and his property against the encroach- 
ments of fraud and crime — so the destination of the laws of 
nations is to secure the independence even of the smallest 
States, from the encroachments of the most powerful ones. 
Force will prevail instead of right, so long as all independent 
nations do not unite for the maintenance of those laws upon 
which the security of aU nations rests. 

I say all nations, because weakness is always comparative, 
not absolute. A combination of several leagued powers can 
reduce to the condition of comparative weakness even the 
strongest power on earth. Without the law of nations there 
is therefore no secuiity for nations. But the European 
powers have long ago substituted for the rule of justice the 
so-called balancing system — that is to say, the political balance 
of power among nations. That system is iniquitous, for it is 
founded, not upon the national right even of the smallest 
nation to be maintained in its independence, but upon the 
natural jealousy of the great powers. With this system the 
independence of the smaller States is not sure by right and 
by law, but only depends on the consideration that the 
absorption of such smaller States might aggrandize one of the 
great powers too much. In this systejn humanity is taken 
for nothing — the mutual jealousy of the powerful is all, and 
the implicit guarantee for the security of the weaker ceases, 
wherever the powerful can devise a plan of spoliation which 
leaves the relative forces of the spoliators the same as before. 
It is thus the world has seen the partition of Poland — that 
most iniquitous — most guilty spoliation ever witnessed. 

The balancing system would have protected Poland from 
absorption by one power, but it has not protected it from 
partition between these rival powers. Formerly, separate 
leagues between several States have been as a protecting 
barrier against the ambition of a single powerful oppressor. 



348 RUSSIA COVETS THE SCLAVES 

In tlie case of Poland, the world saw with consternation a 
confederacy of great powers formed to perpetrate those very 
acts of spoliation which hitherto had been prevented by 
similar means. I therefore am certainly no advocate of this 
false system of political balance of power, and I believe the 
time will come when that idol will be thrown down from the 
place which it usurps, and law and right will be restored to 
their sovereign sway. But still I may say, it is an imperious 
necessity for all the world in general, as also for the United 
States, that something should be done to prevent the mea- 
sureless territorial aggrandizement of one single poiver, chiefly 
when that power is the mighty antagonist of your own 
Eepublic, as indeed Eussia is. 

I have on many occasions spoken of the necessary anta- 
gonism between despotic Eussia and republican America. 
Allow me here to recapitulate some facts concerning Eussia. 

Xo man familiar with the history of the last hundred years 
is ignorant that the Czars of Eussia take it for their destiny 
to rule the world. It is their hereditary policy, in which they 
are brought up from generation to generation, till that in- 
fatuation becomes a point of their character. To come to 
that aim — Eussian preponderance steps forth alike w'ith pro- 
tocols, with emissaries, and with war — in two directions 
westward and eastward, against Europe and against' Asia. 

As to Europe, after having completed her arrondisement 
on the Baltic — her earnest aim is partly direct conquest, and 
partly sovereign preponderance. Direct conquest, so far as 
the Sclave race is spread ; which the Czars desire to unite 
under their despotic sceptre. To attain that end, the house 
of Eomanoff has started the idea of Pansclavism, the idea of 
union of the Sclavish nationality under Eussian protectorate. 
— Protectorate is always the first step which Eussia takes 
when desiring to conquer. 

She has styled that ambitious design the regeneration of 
the Sclave nationality; and to blindfold those deluded nations 
that they may not see that without independence and freedom 
no nationality exists, she has flattered their ambition with 
the prospect of dominion over the world. The Latin race had 
its turn, and the German race had, and now it is the Sclave 



AND CONSTANTINOPLE. 349 

race which is called to rule and master the world. Such was 
the Satanic temptation of pride, by which Eussia advanced in 
that ambitious scheme. I wiU. not now speak of the mischief 
she has succeeded to do in that respect : I wilt only mark the 
fact that the ambition of Eussia aims at the direct dominion 
of Europe, so far as it is inhabited by the S clave race. The 
slightest knowledge of geography is sufficient to make it 
understood that this would be such an accession to the 
power of Eussia, that, were they united under one man's des- 
potic will, the independence of the rest of Europe, should 
even Eussia prudently decline a direct conquest of it, would 
be but a mockery. The Czar would be omnipotent over it, 
as indeed he is near to be already, at least on the Continent. 
Yet, without the conquest of Constantinople, Eussia could 
never carry the idea of Pansclavism : for in European Turkey 
a vast stock of the Sclavonic race dwells, from Bulgaria 
over Servia and Bosnia down to Montenegro, and across 
through Eumelia. Moreover, the conquest of Constanti- 
nople is the hereditary leading idea of Eussian policy. 
Peter, called the Great, the founder of the Eussian Empire, 
in making it from a half-Asiatic a European State, be- 
queathed this policy as a sacred legacy to all his posterity, 
in his political testament, which is the Magna Charta of 
Eussian power and despotism. All his successors have 
energetically followed that inherited direction. Alexander 
movingly avowed that Constantinople is the hey to Jiis own 
house y and his brother did and does more than all his pre- 
decessors to get that key. 

When the Empress Catharine visited the recently con- 
quered Krimea, Potemkin raised to her honour a triumphal 
arch, with the motto — " Hereby is the road to Constan- 
tinople." Czar Nicholas has since learned that it is by 
Vienna, rather, Eussia therefore decided to get rid of this 
obstacle, and to convert it out of an obstacle into a tool. 
A direct conquest would have been dangerous, because it 
would have met the opposition of all Europe. Eussia there- 
fore tried it first by monetary influence, and had pretty well 
advanced in it. Metternich himself was a pensioner to Eussia. 



350 HER DANGEROUS ADVANCES. 

But the watchful, independent spirit of constitutional Hun- 
gary still hindered the practical result of that bribery. 

And, mark well, gentlemen, in consequence of the geogra- 
phical situation of her dominions, and being also sovereigns 
of Hungary, it was chiefly the house of Austria which was 
considered to be and cherished as the great bulwark against 
Eussia — charged especially with a jealous guardianship of 
Turkish rights. And indeed had the house of Austria com- 
prehended the conditions of her existence, attached Hungary 
to herself by respecting her independence and her constitu- 
tional rights, and developed the power of her hereditary 
dominions, and placed herself upon a constitutional basis, 
she could have maintained her respectable position of guar- 
dianship for centuries. Eussia was aware of that fact. 

It is the intrigue of Eussia, which by money and emis- 
saries for years before infused the notion of Pansclavism 
among the Bohemians, Poles, Croats, Serbs, under the 
crown of Austria, equally as among the Sclave population of 
Tui'key; which encouraged Austria to attack Hungary, by 
promising her aid in case of need. If Austria succeeded, 
the constitutional life of Hungary, in many ways so offensive 
to Eussia, was overthrown : if Austria failed, she became a 
dependency of Eussia. And by the unwarrantable careless- 
ness of some powers, the complicity of others, the latter 
alternative is achieved. Austria, who was to have balanced 
Eussia, is thrown into her scale : instead of being a barrier, 
she is her vanguard, and her tool — her high road to Con- 
stantinople, her auxiliary army to flank it. 

It would be not without interest to sketch the history of 
Eussia step by step, advancing towards that aim by war and 
by emissaries, and by diplomatic corruption and corrupted 
diplomacy, from the time of Mahomet Baltadji, of cursed 
memory, through all subsequent wars — at the treaties of 
Kutsuk Kaynardje, Balta Liman, Jassy, Bucharest, Ackier- 
man, Adrianople, Unkhiar Iskelessi, down to the treaty as 
to the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, and to the treaty of 
commerce which made two-thirds of Constantinople itself in 
their daily bread dependent upon Eussian wheat, to the 



ANGLO-SAXON ANTAGONISM. 351 

amount of thirty-five millions of piastres a year, while 
Turkish wheat was rotting in the stores of Asia Minor. By 
each of these treaties Eussia advanced its frontiers, and 
pressed Constantinople more closely within its iron grasp ; 
with such perseverant consistency pursuing her aim, that even 
in other political transactions, apparently unconnected with 
Turkey, it was constantly this which she kept in view. 

As for instance, at the conference of Tilsit, when she 
surrendered continental Europe to the momentary domains 
of Napoleon, provided Turkey were consigned to her. And 
still she did not succeed — and still Stamboul stands a barrier 
to her dominion over the world. And why did she not suc- 
ceed ? Because the European powers, conscious of the fact 
that the conquest of Constantinople involves their own sub- 
mission to Eussia, have in the last instant always prevented 
it, by uniting to treat the Eastern question as one of life and 
death for their own independence. 

The whole Anglo-Saxon race are bound by every consi- 
deration of policy to check the ambitious encroachments of 
Eussia. It is not in Europe only, but in Asia, that you meet 
her. She knows that her dominion over the world must be 
short, while the Anglo-Saxon race hold a mighty empire in 
India. Moreover, you yourselves, by the^extension of your 
territory to the Pacific Ocean, are drawn by a thousand 
natural ties of activity to Asia. Your expedition to Japan 
has a world of meaning in it. Great powers must have broad 
views in their policy : you cannot contain your activity, nor 
therefore your policy, within a domestic circle of your own. 
You are for the world what Germany is for Europe. As 
without the freedom of Hungary, Europe cannot become free, 
so without the freedom of Germany, Europe cannot remain 
free ; for Germany is the heart of Europe. You, by having 
extended your dominion to the Pacific, become the heart of 
the world. You are brought into the compass of Eussian 
hatred and Eussian ambition. Either you or Eussia must fall. 

The balance of power, and thereby the independence of 
the world, has been overthrown by the connivance of the 
great powers at the overthrow of Hungary ; and it can only 



352 SHALL HUNGARY BE RUSSIAN? 

be restored by the restoration of Himgaiy. x\.s for Austria, 
she never more can be restored — she is not only doomed, she 
is dead. No skill, no tending can revive her. Having pre- 
viously broken every tie of affection and of allegiance, she 
cannot maintain even a vegetable life, but by Russian aid. 
Let the reliance upon that aid relax, and there is no power 
on earth which could prevent the nations who groan under 
her oppressive and degrading tyranny from shattering to 
pieces the rotten building of her criminal existence. And as 
to my nation, I declare solemnly, that should we be left for- 
saken and alone to fight once more the battle of deliverance 
for the world, and should we in consequence of it fail in that 
honourable strife, we will rather choose to be Russians than 
subject to the house of Austria — rather submit to open, 
manly force of the Czar, than to the heart-revolting perjury 
of the Hapsburg — rather be ruled directly by the master, 
than submit to the shame of being ruled by his under- 
lings. The fetters of force may be broken once, but the 
affection of a morally offended people to a perjurious dynasty 
can never be restored. Russia we hate with inconceivable 
hatred, but the House of Hapsburg we hate and we despise. 
I have been often asked, what may be, amidst the present 
conjunctures, an opportunity to renew our struggle for liberty? 
and I have answered that the very oppression of our country, 
the heroism of ray people, our resolute will, and the intole- 
rable condition of the European Continent, is an opportunity 
in itself; but if too cautious men, having too little faith in 
the destiny of mankind, desire yet another opportunity, there 
is the prospect of a war between Turkey and Russia. This 
is a fatality, pointed out by the situation of Russia, and by 
the pressing motives, heaped up since the time of Peter the 
Great : and Russia will hasten to try the decisive blow, since 
she knows that Turkey becomes more powerful every day. 
Now, gentlemen, that will be an imperious opportunity to 
raise once more the standard of freedom in Hungary ; and, 
so may God bless us, we are prepared for it. We cannot 
allow that our natural ally, Turkey, be flanked from the 
frontiers of Hungary at the order of the Czar. Turkey, by 



AMERICA IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. 353 

curious change of circumstances, having become necessary to 
European freedom and civilization, will find the kindred race 
of the Magyars to aid her, and by aiding her, to save the 
world. 

The only question is, will the United States remain indif- 
ferent at the overthrow of the balance of power on earth ? 
No, they will not, they cannot remain indifferent. Their 
position on the coast of the Pacific answers "No." Their 
Republican principle answers " No.'' The voice of the 
people, clustering in thundering manifestations around my 
own humble self, answer "No." You yourself. Sir, in the 
name of the people of Syracuse, which is but one tone in 
the mighty harmony of all the people's voice, have told me 
"No." 

Before these assurances, and upon the conditions of your 
destiny, I rely; and I venture humbly to advise you to 
strengthen your fleet in the Mediterranean. Sir, look for a 
port of your own, not depending upon the smiles of petty 
Italian despots, but one where the stripes and stars of America 
will be able to protect the principles of free ships, free 
GOODS. Determine the character of your country's future ad- 
ministration from a broad American view, and not from 
any petty considerations of small party follies. With these 
humble suggestions I cordially thank you for your sympathy, 
and bid you an affectionate farewell ! 



L.— EETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. 

At Utica, in New York State, the elegant Saloon of the 
Museum was arranged for Kossuth's reception : and the 
Hon. W. Bacon made a powerful address to him. Kossuth, 
in the course of his reply, said : — 

Ladies and Gentlemen, — The history and the institutions of 
the United States, were not only the favourite study of my 
life, from my early youth, strengthening my conviction that 
with centralization and with parliamentary omnipotence. 



354 FORCE OF AMERICAN EXAMPLE. 

which absorb all independence of municipal life, there is no 
practical freedom possible : — but the history and institutions 
of the United States exerted also a real influence upon the 
resolution of my people to resist oppression, and not to 
shrink before the dangers and sacrifices of a terrible conflict. 

Never yet was there a people against which all the arts of 
hell had been combined worse than against the people of 
Hungary in 1848. Neither dreaming to attack any, nor 
suspecting to be attacked, never yet was a people less prepared 
for a war of defence, or more surprized by the danger than 
my country was. 

In those frightful days, when many of the stoutest hearts 
prepared mourningly to submit to the imperious necessity, I 
called Hungary to arms ; and while on the one side I pro- 
nounced a curse against those who would forsake the father- 
land, and were willing to bow cowardlike before a sacrilegious 
violence, and accept the degradation of servitude, — on the 
other side, in order to cheer up the manly resolution of 
my countrymen, I pointed to the heart-raising example of 
your history. And that history became the guiding star to 
us, from the lustre of which we have drawn self-reliance and 
resolution to bear up against all danger and all adversities. -' 

But while we on our part readily yielded to the heart- 
ennobling influence of your history, we were disappointed 
in some expectations which we derived from it. We saw 
that you were not forsaken in the hour of need ; yet your 
grievances were by far less heart-stii'ring than ours, and 
should you have failed in the noble enterprize of independ- 
ence, such a failure, at that time, would by no means have 
teemed with such immediate results of positive mischiefs to 
the world outside of you, as every considerate mind might 
have foreseen from our fall. 

I therefore confess that I trusted to that instruction also 
of your history, and hoped that should we prove worthy of 
the attention of the world, that attention would not be 
Restricted to a mere looking at our contest with barren sym- 
pathies. But allow me to mention that it was not from 
America alone that I hoped our struggle would not be re- 
garded with indifference; the example of former political 



PRECEDENT OF GREECE. 355 

transactions in Europe entitled me to just expectations from 
other quarters also in that respect. 

When Greece heroically rose to assert its independence, 
Great Britain, France, and even Russia herself, interposed 
together to pacify the two contending parties, on the basis 
of the establishment of an independent Greece. And so 
very anxious were those great powers to stop the efPusion of 
blood, that they solemnly declared they would insist upon 
the pacification, should even the conflicting parties decline to 
consent to the proposed arrangements. And thus Greece 
took its seat among the independent States, though that was 
possible only by reducing the territory of the Ottoman 
Empire, the integrity of which was considered essential to 
the equilibrium of political power on earth. 

Besides, what were those powers which interposed their 
mediation in favour of bleeding Greece ? It was Eussia, 
despotical as she is : it was legitimist Erance, then scarcely 
to be called constitutional ; for it was before the revolution 
of 1830 : and it was the ministry of Great Britain, then, 
if I am not mistaken, a Tory one. 

Now was I not entitled, with this precedent before my 
eyes, to hope that the blood}?^ struggle in Hungary would 
not be regarded with indifference ? We had not risen from 
any reckless excitement to assert new rights, or to experi- 
ment on new theories ; we should have been contented to 
keep what we lawfully possessed. It was not we who broke the 
peace ; we were assailed with a perjury more sacrilegious than 
the world has ever seen : — we merely took up arms to defend 
ourselves against national extermination, against the name- 
less cruelties inflicted upon our people, — men, women, 
children, — by fire, murder, war, and royal perjury. And 
besides, when we took up arms in legitimate defence, it so 
happened that in Erance there was a republic established 
which proclaimed the principle of universal fraternity ; and 
there was in England a ministry claiming to be liberal, which 
on a former occasion had solemnly vouched its word to 
the British parliament, that the constitutional independence of 
any count?^, great or small^ would never be a matter of indif- 
ference to the English government ; adding emphatically, that 



336 NEW POWER OF AMERICA. 

wJioever might he in office, conducting the affairs of Great 
Britain, he would not perform his duty if he tcere inattentive 
to the interests of such States. Am I to blame for having 
thought that there is and should be morality in politics ? 

And besides, there was republican America, quite in another 
shape than she was twenty years before, at the time of the 
w^ar of independence in Greece. Then she had not yet ex- 
tended her sway to the Pacific, and was not yet exposed 
to be so much affected by the political issues of Europe 
and Asia as she now is : then she had not yet a population 
of more than twenty millions, w^lio now are in the necessity 
to claim the position of a power on earth : then she was 
indeed a new world teeming with the mysteries of the future, 
but yet was far from being what she is to-day ; nay, even the 
Erie Canal, the great artery which now acts as a miraculous 
link between Europe and the interior of your republic, was 
only about to be completed at the time. And still what 
mighty sympathy ! a sympathy w^arm in expression, and not 
barren in facts, thrilled through all America, much like that 
which I now meet, and pervaded even your national councils : 
— would I were entitled to say, much like as now ! Although 
the question of Greece was of course worthy of all interest 
(as the cause of liberty always and everywhere is), yet it 
was only an isolated cause, and by no means of such sur- 
passing influence upon the condition of the world as the 
cause of Hungary was, and is. 

And yet I was disappointed in the expectation which I 
derived from your owm history, that a just cause will find 
supporters and never wdll be forsaken by all. Oh, we were 
forsaken, gentlemen ! We were forsaken even at the crisis, 
when, single-handed, we had defeated our cruel enemy. And 
Eussia, that personification of despotism, stepped in with its 
iron weight, tearing to pieces the law of nations, and over- 
throwing upon our ruins the balance of power on earth. 

That Eussia, if invited, ^vould snatch at the opportunity 
to gain preponderance amongst the powers on earth — of this 
I entertained not the slightest doubt ; but I must confess, 
I did not believe either that Austria would claim, or that the 
other powers of the earth, and chiefly Great Britain and 



PRONOUNCEMENT OF AUSTRIA. 357 

America, would permit the intervention of Eussia. I could 
not believe that Austria would resort to this desperate remedy, 
because (and it is a remarkable circumstance which I mention 
now for the first time) it was Austria which but a few years 
before, when, in the transactions with Turkey, the question 
of foreign interference for the maintenance of the integrity 
of the Turkish empire was agitated in the councils of the 
world (and from which you of course were excluded, as to 
the present day you always yet have been, as if you were 
nothing but a patch of earth) ; yes, it was Austria, which 
objecting that the guarantee of interference should be 
even claimed, pronounced in a solemn diplomatic note these 
memorable words : — 

" A State ought never, to accept, and still less request^ of 
anotJier State, a service for which it is unable to offer in return 
a strict reciprocity : else by accepting such favour, she loses 
the flower of her own independence — -a State accepting such 
a favour becomes a mediatized State ; it makes an act of sub - 
mission to the will of the State which takes the charge of its 
defence : this State becomes a protector, and to be dependent 
upon a protector is insupportable." 

Thus spoke Austria. How then could I imagine that the 
same Austria which thus spoke would accept the degradation 
of Eussian interference? And should even the house of 
Austria, ruled by a guilty woman, under the name of a wit- 
less, cruel child, be willing thus to ruin itself; how could 
I imagine that England, that America, that the World, 
would allow such a preponderance to Eussia as makes her 
almost the mistress over the world ; at least opens the way 
to become such ? No, that indeed I could not imagine. 

And still it was done. We fell, not " unwept, unhonoured, 
and unsung," but still we fell. Well : sad though be our 
fate, it is but a trial, and no death. Perhaps it was necessary 
that the destinies of mankind should be fulfilled. I have an 
unbroken faith in Him, the Heavenly Father of all ; the heart 
of mortal men may break, but what He does, that is well 
done. 

The ways of Providence are mysterious. The car of destiny 
goes on unrestrained, and the weight of its wheels often 



358 THE FAILURE OF 1848 

crushes the happiness of generations; floods of tears and 
of blood often mark its track. Mankind looks up to heaven, 
and while measuring eternity with the rule of the passing mo- 
ment, sometimes despairs of the future, and believes the sun 
of Freedom sunk for ever ! It is a delusion : it is the folly of 
anxiety ! Night is the darkest before dawn, and the misfor- 
tune of the moment often leads to the happiness of eternity. 

Yes, gentlemen ! the ways of Providence are miraculous. 
Let me cast a look backwards into the last struggles for 
freedom in Europe, that their history may become the book 
of future, and that, when we perceive the salutary action of 
Providence even in our misfortunes, we may be strengthened 
in our faith in the future freedom, and that you may see that 
for us, downtrodden but not broken, there is full reason to 
pursue our way, not only with the resoluteness of duty, but 
also with the cheerfulness of a sure success, courageous as 
strength, untired as perseverance, unshaken as religious faith, 
self-sacrificing as maternal love, cautious as wisdom, but reso- 
lute as desperation itself. 

But where is the action of Providence visible in the failure 
of 1848 ? is your question. Gentlemen, I will tell you. The 
continent of Europe was afflicted with three diseases in 
1848 — monarchical inclination, centralization and the anta- 
gonism of nationalities. With such elements and in such 
direction, deception was unavoidable, lasting liberty was not 
to be achieved. 

It w^as the lot of the peoples to be freed from these 
diseases, because God had designed the peoples to freedom 
and not to deception; therefore the revolution of 1848 had 
to fail, but it was still not a mere accident in history ; it was 
a necessary step in the development of mankind's destiny, 
and it will shine for ever in history as a glorious preparation 
for the ultimate triumph of liberty, to carry which a positive, 
practical direction is necessary. And that now exists. 

France, Germany, and Italy are no more to fight for the 
deception of monarchical principles, not for the triumph of 
dynasties, but for republics. Hungary took this direction 
already in 1849, by dethroning the Hapsburgs. France, 
Germany, and Italy will not follow in the track of centraliza- 



WILL ISSUE IN BENEFIT. 359 

tion. Hungary never followed it. And the governments 
may ally themselves for the oppression of the world's liberty ; 
— they have already allied themselves — but nations will no 
more rise in arms against one another. They will rise, not 
to dominate, but to be independent and free. Instead of 
the antagonism of nationalities, it is now the idea of the 
solidarity and fraternity of nations, which is become the 
character of our times. And this is to be the source of our 
success in future ; this explains the fear of the tyrants, which 
manifests itself in such blind rage. This is the direction 
which I pursue : this is the secret of the sympathy of the 
people, unparalleled yet in history, which I met in both 
hemispheres, and of the coalition of despots, aristocrats, and 
ambitious intriguers, to persecute me. 

I hope, gentlemen, with these considerations before your 
eyes, you will not share in the opinions of those who despair 
of the cause of freedom in Europe, because the revolution of 
1848 has failed. 



LI.— THE TRIPLE BOND. 

[Address hefore the Crermcm Citizens of New York.'] ] 

At the Broadway Tabernacle, on Wednesday evening, 
Kossuth delivered a farewell address before the German 
citizens of New York. It was spoken in the German lan- 
guage, and was received with the hearty plaudits of an im- 
mense assemblage. A smaU portion only of it can here find 
place. 

Dear PitiENDS, — Allow me to address you with this sweet 
name of brotherly love, hallowed by deep feeling, by the power 
of principles, and by the combination of circumstances, — 
but likewise weighty in regard to the determination linked 
to it in my grateful heart, in life as in death, to serve the 
cause faithfully which you honour by such generously noble 
sympathy. 

To me this moment is one of solemn importance. I stand 
at the close of my wanderings in America. My words are 
those of farewell. 



360 GERMANY IS LINKED 

In these six montlis I have been enriched by many an ex- 
perience. I had much to unlearn, but I have likewise learnt 
much. 

Whatever be the result of my exertions, so much is sure, 
that they have linked more closely the hearts of the Germans 
and Hungarians, and have matured the instinct of solidarity 
into self-conscious conviction. This result alone is vi^orth a 
warm utterance of thanks ; it will Jieavily weigh in the future 
of the world. 

And this result, dear friends, is it not achieved ? The 
hearts of the German and the Hungarian are linked more 
closely ; they throb like the hearts of twins which have 
rested under the same mother's breast ; they throb like the 
hearts of brothers, who, hand in hand, attain the baptism of 
blood ; they throb like the hearts of two comrades, on the eve 
of the battle, decided to hold together like the blade and the 
handle. 

The echo of this harmony of German song fills yet the 
air of this hall, it thrills yet through the soul of the ladies 
and through the bosom of the resolute men. Let the word 
harmony between the Germans and Hungarians be the con- 
secration of the present moment, which melts together our 
feelings, in order that, self-conscious of the sublime aim, 
which unites our nations and us all in brotherhood, we may 
unite in intention, unite in resolution, unite in endurance, 
unite in activity for the aim which fills your souls and mine. 

And what is this aim which thrills through our bosoms like 
a magnetic current ? The aim is the solidarity and inde- 
pendence of nations ; — the freedom of our people — their 
liberation from the yoke of tyranny. 

With this aim before my eyes and decided resolution in my 
heart, I feel here amidst you as Werner Stauffacher felt, when 
in the hour of the night, on the Riittli, God above him and 
the sword in his hand, he made the covenant with his two 
friends against tyrannical Austria. 

Let this meeting here become the symbol of a similar 
covenant ; three* were the men who made it, and Switzerland 

* Werner Stauffacher, Walter Fiirst, and Arnold of the Melchthal j 
November 11th, 1307. 



TO HUNGARY AND TO ITALY. 361 

became free. Let us three nations make a similar covenant, and 
the world becomes free. Germany, Hungary, and Italy! hurrah 
for the new Euttli-covenant 1 God will increase the number of 
them, as he increased the number of those on the Riittli, and 
our triune band, strong in itself, will readily greet every one, 
and meet him as a brother, having the same rights in the great 
council of the Amphictyons, where the nations will give their 
verdict against tyrants and tyranny, on the battle-field, with 
the thunder of cannons and the clashing of swords ; and will 
put the independence of every nation under the common 
guarantee of all, in order that every one of them may regu- 
late her own domestic affairs, without foreign interference, and 
every people may govern itself, not acknowledging any master 
but the Almighty. They will increase the members of this 
covenant, but Germany, Hungary, and Italy, they are neigh- 
bours, and have the same enemy. Hurrah ! for the new 
covenant of Stauffacher ! 

Now, by the God who led my people from the prairies of 
far Asia to the banks of the Danube — of the Danube, whose 
waves have brought religion, science, and civilization from 
Germany to us, and in whose waves the tears of Germany and 
Hungary are mingled ; by the God who led us, when on the 
soil watered by our blood we were the bulwark of Christendom; 
by the God who gave strength to our arm in the struggle for 
freedom, until our oppressor, this godless House, which 
weighed so heavily on the liberties of Germany for centuries, 
was humbled, and sunk down to be the underling of the 
Muscovite Czar; by the ties of common oppression which 
tortures our nation — by the ties of the same love of liberty, 
and of the same hatred of tyranny which boils in the veins of 
our people — by the remembrance of the day* when the Ger- 
mans of Vienna rose to bar the way toward Hungary against 
the hirelings of despotism — and by the blood which flowed 
on the plain of Schwechatf from Hungarian hearts for the 
deliverance of Yienna ; by the Almighty Eye which watches 
the fate of mankind — by all these, I pledge myself, I pledge 
that the people of Hungary will keep to this covenant honestly, 
faithfully, and truly, in life and death. 

* October 5th, 1848. f October 30th, 1848. 

16 



362 A FREE GERMANY NECESSARY TO ALL. 

I tender the brother-hand of Hungary to the German 
people, because I am convinced that it is essentially necessary 
for the freedom and independence of my country. Destined 
as we are to be the vanguard of freedom, I know well that as 
long as Germany remains enslaved, even the victory of our 
liberty would remain insecure ; as long as Germany remains 
an army, whose power is wielded by the criminal hand of the 
house of Hapsburg ; as long as Eussia has nothing to fear 
from Germany, because the two masters of Germany are but 
underlings of Eussia — obeying the command of their master, 
because he maintains them on their tottering thrones against 
their own people ; — so long Eussia will always have the 
arrogance to throw her despotic sword into the scale against 
the freedom of the world. 

I am not the first who say it, that the freedom of Germany 
is the condition of the liberty of the world ; history tells it 
with a thousand tongues, every statesman acknowledges it, and 
all the despots know it. 

Twenty years past, when the German Princes recovered from 
the stunning blow of the July Ee volution, by finding out that 
Louis Philippe was not in earnest with his phrases of 
liberty, when, in the year 1832, they united to enslave the 
German people, and to retract the concessions whicli they had 
given in the fright of their hearts ; when they curtailed all the 
Constitutional guarantees, then Henry Lytton Bulwer, the 
same who was Ambassador in Washington during the last 
year, rose in the English Parliament, and claimed that England 
should not permit the liberty and independence of the German 
people to be crushed. He claimed the attention of the world 
to the great truths, that tlie peace of Europe cannot he secured 
loitliout a strong Germany, and that Germany cannot be strong 
without freedom. A free Germany is a bulwark against the 
encroachments of Prance and the arrogance of Eussia. 
Germany enslaved, is either the prey of the former or the tool 
of the other. His prophecy is fulfilled ; Germany is become 
half the prey and wholly the tool of Eussia. Who then can 
calculate on security and peace and freedom, as long as 
Germany is thus enslaved. 

You see, dear friends, that the brotherly union with Germany 



UNITY OF THE STRUGGLE. 363 

must be of sacred importance to me, and that my heart must 
beat as fervently for Germany's freedom, as for that of my 
own people. Therefore, I necessarily wished to bequeath the 
care of the seed which I have sown, to men urged to this 
task of love, not only by enlightened American patriotism — 
not only by the conscience of right and duty and prudence, 
but likewise especially by love for their old German father- 
land. And do I not express only the sentiments of your 
own hearts, when I say, " The German may wander from his 
father's house, and may build for himself a new home in 
a distant country, yet he ever loves truly and faithfully his 
own old German fatherland " ? 

I request you to exert your influence, that the idea of the 
solidarity of the struggle for European liberty may be well 
understood, and that preparations be made to support the 
revolution, whenever it breaks out. There is nothing more 
dangerous than to say : " The Hungarian, the Italian, or the 
German fights; let us see whether he succeeds; if he succeeds, 
we too will try the same." By the isolation of the nations 
the combined despots become victorious. Let everybody 
support Liberty, wherever she struggles. But, on the other 
side, the forces of the revolution cannot so pledge and tie 
themselves, as to be thrown into the abyss by every ill-com- 
bined premature outbreak. Not an '^ emeute," hut a kevo- 
LUTION is our aim; and therefore the leaders of the movement 
of the difiPerent nations must combine either in a simultaneous 
outbreak, or to mutual support; and in this combination 
there must be absolute freedom and equality. 

There are persons in this country who did me the honour 
to mention that I would lead the German movement. No ! 
gentlemen ; that would be a presumptuous arrogance, even 
if it were practical, which it is not. This idea itself is the 
most antagonistical to my principles. No ! — No ! No foreign 
interference with the domestic affairs of a nation. I will not 
bear it in Hungary, nor obtrude it abroad. Full independence 
is my watchword. 

But you will ask who are, or who were, the leaders of 
Germany, with whom I still combine ? The question is 
easily answered ; you will acknowledge them from their works. 



364 FAREWELL. 

Whoever comes to tender me his hand as a confederate, I do 
not ask who he is, where he comes from ? — but I ask, " What 
do you weigh ? what power do you command ? what forces 
have you organized ? or what are your prospects or means of 
organization?" and then I inquire into the truth myself. 
I judge the vitality of the intention, and accept or decline 
the proffered brotherly alliance of mutual support. 

This is my way. I do not think that Germany will ever 
combine under the leadership of one man; but there are 
many Germans in the different parts of Germany who enjoy 
the confidence of their countrymen, and have a leading in- 
fluence. Every one of these can act in his sphere. I, my 
friends, will be always ready to combine with every one who 
does, and who has some forces to tender to the league. I do 
not care for names, for petty party disputes, or for those 
which belong to the domestic questions. 

[Kossuth proceeded, in assent to a special request, to give 
his advice as to the method of proceeding suitable to the 
German voters in America ; and closed by saying :] 

Those are the principles, my dear friends, which should 
lead you, according to my humble opinion, in the present 
crisis. And if you take into kind consideration my bequest, 
and exert your influence and active aid on behalf of the move- 
ment for freedom in Europe, I can but assm*e you, for my 
grateful farewell, that there are hundreds of thousands in 
Europe who take those words for their device, which the 
other day, the German singers sang, as if from the depth of 
my heart. 

" And never shaU rest the shield and the spear, 
Till destroyed we see, and laid in the dust, 
The enemies aU." 

May God help me ! This is my oath, and this oath my 
farewell ! 



365 

APPENDICES TO KOSSUTH^S SPEECHES. 
— -^ : e I « ' 

Appendix I. — Extracts from a Letter to the ^ Daily News,"" 
dated January nth, 1852, by Sabbas Vucovics, late 
Minister of Justice in Hungary, in answer to Count 
Castmir Bathyanyi. 

So early as the commencement of the Serbian insurrection, the 
popular suspicion gained ground that the insurrection had been 
stirred up by the secret intrigues of the court, and confidence in the 
truth and good faith of the King disappeared accordingly. The 
nation, however, still indulged the hope that a weak King, though 
betrayed into ambiguous proceeding, would not permit himseK to be 
carried away into a flagrant breach of the constitution. This was 
the time when the King, in the opinion of the people, was kept dis-* 
tinct from the Camarilla. But when the Austrian ministry openly 
attempted to deprive Himgary of its ministries of war and finance, 
when the base game of the degradation and restoration of Jellachich 
was played, and when the Hungarian army, fighting in the name of 
the King against the insurrections of the Serbians and Croats, became 
aware that the balls of that same King thinned their ranks from the 
hostile camp, the nation arrived at the universal conviction that the 
Hapsburg dynasty were only pursuing their old absolute tendencies, 
and that they wanted to force Hungary into self-defence, in order, 
under the pretext of rebellion, to deprive it of all its constitutional 
rights and guarantees. It needs no proof that a loud indignation 
and even hatred of the dynasty spread far and wide in the country 
in consequence of these intrigues and proceedings. In spite of this 
natural excitement, and of the war itself carried on by the nation 
with an increasing enthusiasm of hatred of the House of Austria, 
no party in the country urged a declaration of decheance or for- 
feiture against the dynasty. Even all the faithless acts recorded in 
the letter of Count Casimir Bathyanyi, and the cruelties committed 
in the name of that court in Lower Hungary and Transylvania, did 
not turn the scales in this direction. The Pragmatic Sanction was 
still considered as good in law ; and the many precedents of our 
history, when the nation and its kings went to war with each other, 
and ultimately settled their disputes by solemn pacts confirming the 
constitution of the land, conveyed the notion that a reconciUation 
was even then not impossible. 

Without these precedents and reminiscences of history, and only 
guided by the universal feeling of the country against the dynasty, 
the Hungarian parhament would have pronounced the forfeiture of 



366 HUNGARIAN REPUBLICANISM SPONTANEOUS. 

the House of Austria so far back as October, 1848, when JeUachich 
was appointed absolute plenipotentiary of the King in Hungary, 
with discretionary power of life and death ; or in December, 1848, 
when in Ohniitz the succession to the Hungarian throne was changed 
and determined, without the concurrence of the nation through the 
Diet. To force the nation and its parhament to the last step in this 
momentous crisis, the court itself broke the dynastic tie. 

This was done by the imposition of the constitution of the 4th of 
March, 1849, by which the House of Austria itself anniliilated the 
Pragmatic Sanction, treating free and independent Hungary with the 
arrogance of a conqueror. The nation, more irritated by this act 
than by any preceding event, saw that the hour was come, beyond 
which further to defer the dethronement of the dynasty would be 
alike incompatible with the laws and the honour of Hungary. All 
the channels of public opmion, the public press, the popular meet- 
ings, and even the head quarters of the army resotmded with em- 
phatic declarations of the impossibUity of reconciliation with the 
dynasty. The garrison of Komorn — the most important fortress of the 
country — petitioned the government for the declaration of forfeiture. 
Most assm'edly no party manoeuvres were wanted in this universal 
excitement, caused by the constitution of the 4th of March, to carry 
a parhamcntary resolution of forfeiture. 

AYhen the proposition of forfeiture was made on the 14th of April, 
1849, in the House of Representatives, only eight members voted 
against it, in a house never attended by less than from 220 to 240 
members. The House of Magnates adopted this resolution without 
opposition. The press of all shades of opinion, though enjoying the 
most unhmited freedom, also declared for the resolution of the Diet. 
It was moreover received throughout the whole country with patriotic 
assent and determination. If there was a party opposed to the for- 
feiture, how came it that it did not hold it to be a duty to declare 
its opposition in the Diet or through the press ? 

When the inteUigence of the unfortunate battle of Temeswar 
reached the Grovernor Kossuth, who was then in the fortress of Arad, 
he immediately summoned a council of the ministry to dehberate 
on measures of public safety still possible. At this council, in which 
all the ministers took part, it was resolved to invest Gorgei, who 
stood alone at the head of an unconquered army, with full powers 
for negotiating a peace. It was, moreover, resolved to dissolve the 
government, which could not be carried on in any fixed place of 
safety under the existing circumstances. We did not, however, insert 
in the instrument investing Grorgei with full power (and despatched 
to him immediately) the abdication of the government. On the 
same day — it was the 11th of August, 1849 — Gorgei declared in the 
presence of some of the ministers who had assembled at Csanyi's 



KOSSUTH^S RESIGNATION CONDITIONAL. 367 

(who was one of them), that he could not accept the commission be- 
cause the resignation of the government was not contained in it, 
while he was sure that the enemy would enter into no negotiations 
with him, so long as Kossuth and his ministry were thought to be 
behind him. The ministers who were present, after a short dehbera- 
tion, considering it to be their duty not to stand in the way of the 
negotiation which had been resolved on as necessary, accordingly 
sent their resignation to the governor, loJiom they requested to resign 
as loelL The governor soon after sent his abdication for counter- 
signature by these members of the ministry, and accordingly the 
government formally dissolved itself, after having done so de facto 
in the previous council of ministers. I must mention the circum- 
stance that in the governor's instrument of abdication conditions were 
prescribed to Gorgei, which were not inserted in the original instrw 
ment of authorization issued by the full council. These conditions 
were, tlie preservation of the nationahty and the autonomy of Hungary. 
Four ministers took part in this resignation of the governor, as above 
stated, AuHch, Csanyi, Horvath, and I. Two of the ministers, 
Szemere and [Casimir] Bathyanyi, were absent when the formal de- 
claration of the abdication was discussed at Csanyi' s residence. I 
have not mentioned among the ministers our late colleague, the 
finance minister Dushek, because his treachery, which was afterwards 
brought to hght, excludes him from om' ranks. From all these cir- 
cumstances, it will be manifest how unjust the reproaches of Count 
Casimir Batthyani are, that no new cabinet council was held. 

It is notorious that Gorgei abused the full powers with which he 
was entrusted, instead of procuring the preservation of Hungary by 
a negotiation for peace, by an ignominious treachery to his native 
country. From that very moment the power conferred on him by 
the above-mentioned instrument, and the conditional abdication of 
the government consequently and legally reverted to him who had 
invested him with it. To deny this would be to recognize in the 
foreign rule which crushed Hungary in consequence of that treachery, 
legitimate right and lawful power. 

I, however, perfectly agree with the noble count, that the nation, 
once more restored to its constitutional existence and free from foreign 
yoke, will have the unlimited right to dispose of all the affairs of the 
country, and consequently of the executive power. To assert a 
contrary opinion would be a crime against the nation. Not over a 
liberated nation (which, of course, would have the right to choose 
whom it will), but over a nation crushed by an usurping power, the 
claims of Kossuth as elected Governor of Hungary, are, I submit, 
lawful. 

RepubUcan principles have not been proclaimed at Kossuth's 
dictation as the aim of our national exertions. They were, during 

16 § 



368 KOSSUTH WAS FORCED INTO REPUBLICANISM. 

our struggle, the well-ascertained and deep-rooted sentiment of the 
country, and Kossuth could only faithfully represent the proclaimed 
will and feeling of the nation, by inscribing them on his banner. 
Immediately after the declaration of independence, all the manifesta- 
tions of the national will were unanimous in the desire for a repubHc. 
The ministry, which was nominated by the Grovernor as a consequence 
of that legislative act, declared in both houses of the Diet, that its 
efforts would be directed to the establishment of a repubHc. Both 
houses joined in this declaration, and in the government no oppo- 
sition whatever was manifested agauist it. One of the first acts of 
the new government was to remove the crown from all national 
scutcheons, and from the great seal of Hungary. The press m all 
its shades developed repubhcan principles. The new semi-official 
paper bore the name of The Bepuhlic. It is true that the govern- 
ment was only provisional, for the war continued, and the definite 
decision of this question depended on imforeseen circumstances. 
We should have preferred almost any settlement to the necessity of 
a subjection to the Austrian dynasty ; and at the price of emanci- 
pation from that detested power, the nation would even have been 
prepared, for the sake of aid, to choose a king from another race ; 
but certainly if it had been the unaided victor in the struggle, never. 
Monarchical government would have been for us the mere resort 
of expediency. The government of our wishes and priuciples was 
' The RepubHc' 

I do not feel at aU convhiced, as the noble cotrnt asserts, that the 
institutions and habits of Hungary are incompatible with a demo- 
cratic repubHc. I find, on the contrary, traits in them which lead 
me to an opposite conclusion. The aggregate character of the nu- 
merous nobiHty which resigned its privileges in the Diet of 1847-48 
of its own accord, and which was in its nature more a democratic 
than an aristocratic body, because neither territorial wealth nor rank 
interfered with or disturbed the equality of its rights, — the national 
antipathy to the system of an upper house, which was considered 
as a foreign institution, because it had been introduced under the 
Austrian dynasty, — the immemorial custom of periodicaUy electing 
aH officials, and even the judges, — the detestation in which bureau- 
cracy and all the instruments of centralization were held in aU ages, 
while the attachment to the mimicipal self-government was ineradi- 
cable, — the fact that in consequence of the laws which had been 
sanctioned in April, 1848, the coimty authorities, formerly only 
elected from the " nobility" were democraticaUy reconstituted, and 
exercised their functions in this form tiU the catastrophe of Yilagos, 
without the sHghtest coUision between the different classes of society, 
— the peaceful election of the representatives of the last Diet con- 
ducted almost on the principle of universal suffrage, — aU these facts 



HUNGARY IS SUITED FOR A REPUBLIC. 369 

unmistakeably prove that the germ of democracy lay in oiir insti- 
tutions, and that these could receive a democratic development without 
any concussion. Those characteristic traits of our nation, which 
have been so often misrepresented as signs of an aversion to a 
republic, and which may be more properly called civic virtues ; as, 
for example, our respect for law, our antipathy to untried pohtical 
theories, our attachment to traditional ciistoms, and our pride in the 
history of our country, are no obstacles to, but rather guarantees, 
and even conditions of a repubhc, which is to be national and en- 
during. It would indeed be an unprecedented event in history if 
staunch royaUsm could be the characteristic of a country which, like 
Hungary, has found in its kings for three hundred years the in- 
exorable foes of its liberties, and which in that time for its defence 
had to wage six bloody wars against the dynasty. 

As to the criticisms by the noble count of the personal character 
of Kossuth, I take leave to assert that a great majority of the 
Hungarian nation do not share his opinion. It is not my task to 
appear as a personal advocate, and I wish, therefore, to advert only 
to one point of his attack, which may seem to be based on facts. 
The noble count asserts that Kossuth has attained to power hy 
doubtful means. I am amazed at this assertion, knowing, as I do, 
that Kossuth was proposed by Coiint Louis Bathyanyi, and no- 
minated by the King with the universal applause of the nation, to 
the Ministry of Finance. After the resignation of the first Hun- 
garian ministry, he was freely and unanimously elected by the Diet 
to the Presidency of the Committee of Defence, and after the declared 
forfeiture of the dynasty to the Grovemorship of the country. I know 
no more honourable means by which a man can be raised to power. 

S. YUKOYICS, 
Late Minister of Justice of Hungary. 
London, January 17, 1853. 



Appendix II. — Extracts from a Letter to the ' Times,' dated 

December ^th, 1851, by Bartholomew Szemere, late 

Minister of the Interior in Hungary ; in answer to 

Prince Esterhazy. 

I SHALL now proceed to give a succinct account of what took place 

from April 14, when the new acts received the Eoyal sanction, to 

December, 1848. You may be assured that I shall conceal nothing 

that tended to change the relations between Hungary and Austria. 

The Prime Minister was already nominated when Jellachich was 
raised to the dignity of Ban of Croatia by a Eoyal decree which the 
Premier was not even asked to coimtersign. The Hungarian ministers, 
nevertheless, for the sake of peace, overlooked this irregular pro- 
ceeding. 



370 THE KING^S SPEECH^ OF JULY 2d. 

By a decree, dated June 10, 1S48, the King made known to 'all 
whom it miglit concern, that all the troops stationed within the 
kingdom of Hmigary, whether Hungarians or Austrians, were placed 
under the orders of the Hungarian Minister of War, and that all the 
Hungarian fortresses w^ere under the jurisdiction of the said Mmister. 
Yet at tliis very time officers of the Imperial and Royal army were 
taking an active part in the rebeUion of the Serbs and Yalachs, while 
General Mayerhofer was enhsting recruits in the principality of 
Sorvia, and sending them to assist the rebels. The people thus beheld 
with astonishment civil war break out, and saw with still greater 
astonishment that Imperial officers were fighting on both sides. 

JeUachich, as a functionary of the Hungarian Crown, refused to 
obey the Hungarian ministry, and illegally sununoned a Croatian Diet 
to meet at Agram on June 5. In consequence of these proceedings 
Ferdinand Y, by a decree dated June 10, 1848, deprived him, as a 
rebel, of all his civil and military offices and dignities, but at the same 
tune sent him, through his Minister of War, Latour, field officers, 
artillery, and ammunition. 

The troubles increased daily. The Hungarian Ministry requested 
the Archduke John to act as mediator. He accepted the office, but 
did notliing. 

The Diet met on July 2. The Palatine, as the representative of 
the Sovereign, in the speech from the Throne, said that, as several 
districts were in a state of open rebellion, the principal objects to 
which, in the name of His Majesty, he should direct the attention of 
the Diet were the finances and the defences of the country, and that 
bills relating to these objects would be brought in by the Ministers. 
He then proceeded as follows : — * His Majesty has learned with 
painful feehngs that, although he only followed the dictates of his 
own gracious inclination, when, at the request of the faithful Hun- 
garian people, he gave his Sovereign sanction to the laws enacted by 
the last Diet — laws which the common weal, according to the exigencies 
of the present age, rendered imperatively necessary — there are, never- 
theless, a number of seditious agitators, especially in the annexed 
territories and the Hungarian districts of the Lower Danube, who, 
by false reports and terrorism, have excited the difierent rehgious 
sects and races speaking difierent languages against each other, and, 
by mendaciously affirming that the above-mentioned laws are not the 
free expressions of His Majesty's Eoyal will, have stirred up the 
people to ofier an armed opposition to the execution of the law 
and to the legally constituted authorities. And, moreover, that some 
of these agitators have even proceeded so far in their iniquitous course 
as to spread the report that this armed opposition has been made in 
the interests of the dynasty and with the knowledge and connivance 
of His Majesty or of the members of His Majesty's Royal house. 



FARTHER TREACHERIES. 371 

I therefore, in order that all the inhabitants of the kingdom, without 
distinction as to creed or language, may have their minds set at rest, 
hereby declare, in conformity with the sovereign behest of His 
Majesty our most gracious King, and in his sovereign name and 
person, that it is His Majesty's firm and steadfast determination to 
defend with all his Royal power and authority the unity and integrity 
of His Royal Hungarian crovni against every attack from without and 
every attempt at disruption and separation that may be made within 
the kingdom, and at the same time inviolably to maintain the laws 
which have received the Royal sanction. And while His Majesty wUl 
not suffer any one to curtail the liberties assured to all classes by the 
law, His Majesty, as well as all the members of His Royal dynasty, 
strongly condemns the audacity of those who venture to affirm that 
any illegal act whatsoever or any disrespect of the constituted autho- 
rities can be reconcileable with His Majesty's sovereign will, or at all 
compatible with the interests of the Royal dynasty.' 

It thus clearly appears that the King acknowledged the vahdity 
and the inviolabihty of the acts passed by the Diet of 1847-8 three 
months after they had been sanctioned. 

Relying on the sincerity of the Royal asseverations, the Diet 
humbly requested that His Majesty would be graciously pleased to 
render the country happy by his presence. It was, in fact, the general 
wish that the King should come to Hungary ; even the most radical 
journals loudly declared that if he came he would be received with 
enthusiasm bordering on madness. 

Meanwhile the rebeUion of the Croats, Serbs, and Yalachs was 
spreading daily, and that, too, m the noAne of the Sovereign. Generals, 
colonels, and other field officers of the Imperial army were at the 
head of it, without any one of them being summoned by the Eang to 
answer for his conduct. The eyes of the too credulous natives were 
now opened, and still more when the King refused to sanction the 
acts for the levying of troops and raising of funds for the suppression 
of the rebeUion, although the Diet had been convened chiefly for this 
purpose. 

I must here observe that at this period nothing whatever had 
occurred that could serve as a pretext for the dynasty to support the 
rebellion. The Diet, it is true, would not consent that the troops that 
were to be levied should be draughted into the old regiments ; but it 
was obviously impossible for the Diet to consent to any such measures 
at a period when the rebels were everywhere led by Imperial officers 
when the Austrian troops stationed in Hungary, although they had 
been placed under the orders of the Himgarian Ministry, refused to 
fight against those rebels, and the commanders of fortresses to receive 
orders from the Hungarian War-office. 

On the 8th of September a deputation from the Hungarian Diet 



372 PRETENCES OF THE AUSTRIANS, 

earnestly entreated His Majesty to sanction two acts relating to the 
levying of troops and taxes. The King refused ; but in his answer 
to the address of the deputation said, * I trust that no one will hereby 
suppose that I have the intention to set aside or infringe the existuig 
laws. This, I repeat, is far from my intention. On the contrary, it 
is my firm and determmed will to maintain, in conformity with my 
coronation oath, the laws, the integrity, and the rights of the kingdom, 
under my Hungarian crown.' 

The King made this "solemn declaration on the 8th of September, 
and on the 9th of September Jellachich crossed the Drave with 
48,000 men to wage war in the King's name on the Hungarian Diet 
and Ministry. The King had moreover, on tlie 4th of September 
affixed his sign manual to a letter or Koyal mandate addressed to 
Jellachich, and revoking the decree by which he had been deprived of 
his civil and mihtary offices and dignities. His Majesty, in this 
letter, also expressed liis high approbation of the Ban's conduct. By 
a Royal decree, dated October 3, the constitution was suspended, 
martial law proclamied, and Jellachich, the rebel, a^Dpointed His 
Majesty's Plenipotentiary Commissary for the kingdom of Hungary, 
and invested with unlimited authority to act, in the name of His 
Majesty, within the said kingdom. 

Himgary, so far from commencing the revolution, was not even 
prepared to meet the invasion of the Croatian Ban. He was defeated 
near Stuhlweissenbm'g by the Landsturm. The Hungarian Grovern- 
ment only began to organize regular troops in October. 

That the Diet did not recognize a decree that suspended the 
constitution and invested Jellacliich with the dictatorship, will be 
found quite natural, if not by you, at least by every Enghshman who 
cherishes constitutional freedom, the more so as its proceedings on 
this occasion were founded on legal right, viz., on act 4, sect. 6, of 
1847-8, which expressly ordains that ' the annual session of the Diet 
shall not be closed, nor the Diet itself dissolved, before the budget 
for the ensuing year has been voted.' 

From this short but faithful account of what actually occurred, 
it clearly appears that the Hungarian nation had not recourse to 
arms until the Ban of Croatia entered the Hungarian territory with 
an Austrian- Croatian army. It is also an undeniable fact that untU 
the promulgation of the Austrian Charter in March 1849 — by which, 
with a stroke of the pen, the independence of Hungary was destroyed, 
its constitution abolished, and its territories dismembered — the Hun- 
garian nation never demanded anything else than the maintenance of 
the laws and institutions which its Sovereign had sanctioned and 
sworn to maintain inviolate. It was however precisely for the 
purpose of destroying these laws and institutions that the dynasty 
began the war. This, of course, they did not venture to avow. It 



UNANIMITY OF HUNGARY. 373 

was necessary to conceal the real motives of their perfidious conduct 
from the civilized world. Hence in their public proclamations they 
always alleged some pretext or other— *all of them equally groundless* 
At the commencement they said that it was only an insignificant 
faction they had to deal with ; but when they saw that the whole 
nation was arrayed in arms against them, they declared it was for the 
suppression of demagogueism, propagated by foreigners, chiefly 
Poles, that their armies had entered Hungary ; and to give a colour 
to this pretext they industriously spread the report that there were 
20,000 Poles in the ranks of the Hungarians. When however it 
became notorious that no more than 1000 Poles were fighting under 
our national standard, the Austrian dynasty appeared as the soi-discmi 
champion and judge of the various nationahties or races. This 
answered well enough until the system of centrahzation showed 
too clearly that an attempt would be made to Germanize these 
nationahties ; when the dynasty again veered about, and, leaving 
' nationahties' in the lurch, took up the peasantry. We consequently 
find the Austrian Grovernment assuring the Washington Cabinet 
(in the note of July 4, 1851) that they had waged war on Hungary 
in order to crush a turbulent aristocracy that ' preach democracy 
with their tongues, while their whole Hves consist in the daily 
exercise over their fellow-men of arbitrary power in the most 
repugnant form.' This last pretext, so ostentatiously put forth, 
loses, however, even its plausibihty when contrasted with the pohcy 
of the dynasty in 1848, for it is an undoubted fact that, although the 
reforms effected in our ^political institutions at that period were 
consented to by the dynasty without much hesitation, it required the 
most energetic remonstrances on the part of the Diet to obtain the 
Royal sanction to the act for the Hberation of the peasants from 
feudal bondage. 

It is precisely to the fact of aU classes, without distinction, being 
equally aware of the cabals of the dynasty that may be ascribed the 
success of the Hungarian insurrection. It was not one man, nor a 
party, nor a conspiracy, nor terrorism that awakened that spontaneous 
enthusiasm with which the people rushed to arms. Kossuth may 
have been the rallying cry ; but he was not the cause of the war 
For several months the people had witnessed the equivocal conduct 
of the dynasty ; had seen that its words were belied by its deeds ; 
had seen that the rebels were everywhere led by Imperial officers ; 
and finally beheld Jellachich, a high functionary of the Hungarian 
Crown, invade the comitry at the head of an Austro- Croatian army. 
It was then, and not till then, that the nation cried, as with one 
voice — the King is a traitor. From that day began the Hungarian 
revolution. On that day the monarchical feehng was extinguished. 
What no one had thought it possible to accomplish was accompHshed 
by the dynasty itself. 



374 



Appendix III. — Extracts from a Letter to the 'Daily News' 
in February, 1852, by a '' Hungarian Exile," in reply 
to a Letter from Szemere to the London ' Examiner,"^ 

[I am personally acquainted with the accomplished and in- 
telligent " Exile ;" but as he is absent from England, I cannot 
obtain permission to publish his name.] 

It was more than two months after the civil war had been raging 
in the Banat and Transylvania that the question of giving fresh 
troops for the suppression of the Italian war was brought before the 
Assembly at Pesth, July 22, 1848. Now, what are the accusations 
M. Szemere brings forth against Kossuth in reference to the Itahan 
question ? The pith of M. Szemere's reasoning is, that the ministry 
agreed, in the protocol of July 5, upon construing the Pragmatic 
Sanction as binding Hungary to protect the integrity of Austria ; 
* yet that Kossuth, as the organ of the ministry, spoke in a way as 
if he did not approve of the poHcy, and sought to make the public 
beheve that the protocol was merely a moral demonstration :' 
further, that when the opposition denied the obligation of Hungary 
to defend Austria, the ministry refused to enter into any discussion 
on an acknowledged principle of constitutional law. 

In order to show the utter hollowness of this attack, it may be 
sufficient to look at the date and circumstances M. Szemere talks 
of. The protocol in question was agreed upon on July 5th, the day 
when the parhament met to provide for the defence of the country. 
The members inexperienced in foreign pohtics and ignorant of the 
cabals of courts, although presuming that the civil war was kindled 
in Vienna, were at first blinded by the royal convocation of the Diet 
to provide for the safety of the country; putting moreover imphcit 
confidence in the sagacity and goodwill of the ministry. When 
however Kossuth opened the debate on the Itahan question, July 22, 
affairs looked quite different from what they appeared to be when 
the protocol was drawn up. The treachery of the dynasty broke 
upon the mind of the most careless, and its connexions with the 
leaders of the rebellious tribes had become undeniable facts. It 
was during that short time, from July 5 to July 22, that our 
national forces met in the Serbian entrenchments of St. Thomas, 
Foldvar and Turia, regular Austrian soldiers : Meyerhofe, the Aus- 
trian consul at Belgrade, was openly recruiting bands of Servians to 
reinforce the insurgents ; nay, it became even evident that General 
Bechtold, appointed by his Majesty to lead the faithful Hungarians 
against the rebellious Serbs, led them on in order to get them the 
sooner decimated and broken. Some members of the opposition, 
headed by Greneral Perczel, declaimed loudly against the cowardly 



HUNGARIAN LEVIES AGAINST ITALY. 375 

and fallacious policy of the ministry, resolving to compel ministers 
to resign or to induce them to take some more efficacious measures. 
In short, during this space of time, the government and people 
found themselves in quite a new position. Kossuth, in concert with 
the ministry, moved a levy of 200,000 men (July 11), which motion 
the Assembly hailed with unparalleled enthusiasm, and which the 
people witnessed with approval, as affording a guarantee of their 
Hberties. It was in the midst of these moments of excitement and 
temporary distress that Kossuth, as the most popular member of the 
cabinet, was pointe^J out as the person most fitted to undertake the 
very difficult task of speaking on the Italian question alluded to by 
M. Szemere. Pubhc opinion, aided by the opposition of the house, 
was convinced that Austria, after having subjugated the Lombard- 
Venetians with Hungarian troops, would then turn to Hungary, the 
enslavement of which might more easily be executed by the country's 
being bereft of a number of stout arms indispensable to her own 
defence. Kossuth therefore, as a man of true liberal principles, 
while acknowledging the ground to be right upon which the oppo- 
sition moved, professed in the speech alluded to that he had agreed 
then with his colleagues in respect to the Italian question, on the 
ground that the moral power of the protocol would suffice, although 
as a private individual he could not help rejoicing at the victories of 
the Italian people. Now, I submit it to every enlightened Enghsh- 
man to decide whether Kossuth evince 4 a want of civic virtue in 
declaring that, as a man who wished freedom for himself, he could 
not rejoice in the sending of troops to subjugate another people 
struggling against the same tyrant ? 

Eeferring to the policy of the ministry, M. Szemere says ' that 
Count Louis Bathyanyi declared, on the 31st March, that the obli- 
gation enjoined by the Pragmatic Sanction was such that Hungary 
was bound thereby to defend the territorial integrity of the Austrian 
monarchy, but that they (the ministers) would carefully avoid inter- 
fering in the internal affairs of the states that constituted this 
monarchy.' Irrespective of this — that Count Bathyanyi explained 
the policy in March, when Hungary enjoyed perfect peace, whereas 
the debate on the Italian question happened in the midst of most 
threatening civil wars carried on directly by Austria — it must be 
remembered that if by the 1st article of the Pragmatic Sanction 
Hungary was bound to afford aid to Austria etiam contra vim ex- 
ternam^ that same article provided that the States composing the 
realm of Hungary were to be preserved by the monarch aeque indi- 
msibiliter as his hereditary estates ; and that by the 3d article of 
that celebrated law the Sovereign promised, for himself and his suc- 
cessors, to compel his subjects of every state and degree to observe 
the laws and rights of Hungary. It is therefore evident that the 



376 DIFFICULT POSITION OF THE MINISTRY. 

infraction of this law, by the countenance and aid furnished to the 
Serbs (as also to Jellachich), fully exonerated the Hungarians from 
sending troops to Italy before they had provided for the safety of 
their country, and fully justified them and their responsible minister 
for drawing the attention of their Sovereign to it in the address to 
the Crown. M. Szemere talks of protecting the integrity of the 
Austrian empire, and carefully avoiding to interfere with the in- 
ternal affairs of other states. The Czar may indeed exclaim with 
M. Szemere, that in sending his Cossacks into Hungary he never 
intended to interfere in our internal affairs. 

The second charge, as to Kossuth's striving to concentrate in his 
person all power and authority, is, I fear, indicative of the animus 
which prompted M. Szemere to write these letters, namely, jealousy 
of his great countryman. The charge however is entirely without 
foundation : and the only question is, as to how Kossuth acquired 
such unbounded influence over his countrymen of every rank and 
station. The means by which Kossuth gained such an ascendancy 
Over his colleagues, M. Szemere himself must own, were, the implicit 
confidence the country placed in his patriotism, and the conviction 
it had acquired of his genius and indefatigable activity. In moments 
of extreme danger no name was heard but that of Kossuth. I am 
far from asserting that all Kossuth has done is exempt from censure ; 
but it must, on the other hand, be admitted that all that was grand 
in our revolution happened by his instrumentality. His mere 
appearance, as for instance, in Debreczin, January 1849, when the 
second danger seemed to overwhelm the country, roused the fright- 
ened people of the Thesis, who crowded under the national standard 
and shattered to pieces the Austrian forces. 

The fall of Hungary can only be traced to the foUowiag three 
circumstances : — 1st. That it was not beheved thafc European diplo- 
macy would allow Russian intervention. 2d. That our plan of 
warfare, directed by the council of war, and not by Kossuth, wanted 
that concentration which could alone have ensured success. 3d. 
That the character of G-orgei, whom our generals never accused of 
treacherous designs, was a mystery: nay, the patriotic Greneral 
Perczel, who proclaimed loudly Gorgei's treachery from the very 
beginning, had the satisfaction to be laughed at and hooted down. 
To impute these disastrous circumstances to Kossuth alone, is to 
render one's self guilty of the greatest perversion of generally 
acknowledged and incontrovertible facts. 

A HUJSraAEIAN EXILE. 



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PROGRESS OF RUSSIA 

IN THE 

WEST, NORTH, AND SOUTH, 

BY OPENING THE SOIJECES OF OPINION AND APPKOPEIATING 
THE CHANNELS OP WEALTH AND POWEE. 

By DAVID URQUHART. 



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